The Tucson Unified School District held its first festival of schools at the Reid Park Zoo in November to let the public know what each of their 105 schools has to offer. The event was attended by more than 9,000 parents and students, who received free admission to the zoo according to David Scott, the director of accountability and research for TUSD.
“I think it was an excellent venue for this event,” said Jon Ben-Asher, principal at Wrightstown and Henry Elementary schools. “There’s a natural draw for the kids to want to come to the zoo.”
The event was designed to be fun and informative. Parents were given a Catalog of Schools, which has information about every school in the district. The catalog can also be found at www.tusd1.org, the district’s Web site.
“The event was very successful. It was a way for schools to take a proactive approach to marketing their programs,” said Jesus Celaya, principal of Drachman Montessori Magnet Elementary School.
Scott said that because of open enrollment, the event was designed to help parents and students find the best school for them.
In 1978, the district faced a federal desegregation order that required a certain number of minority students to attend several schools in the district. The desegregation order trumped the state’s open enrollment law.
Scott said two years ago a case in Seattle determined that it was illegal to determine where students were placed based on their race. The judge who oversaw TUSD’s case applied this sentiment to their case as well.
Now that students are not limited to the schools they can attend, Scott says he “wants to make sure people are going to the school that’s best for them.”
Enrollment over the past three years has dropped by about 1,500 students each year; which equates to a total of $10 million in cuts for the district.
“As a large district, we are criticized a lot in the media,” Ben-Asher said. “A lot of things we have to offer don’t get attention. (But the event) was a nice opportunity for Tucson to get to know its schools in an intimate setting.”
Scott says the event was designed to “better educate parents of the choices they have,” adding that the district often lost students to charter schools.
The district most often loses students to charter schools during the middle school years, because parents don’t know what the district has to offer, Scott said.
Scott said the success of last year’s middle school festival was the reason the district decided to have one for all grade levels.
