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Increased Funding From State the Goal for Amphi's Board

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 November 2005, 09:00 CST

By Shelley Shelton, ARIZONA DAILY STAR

The Amphitheater Public Schools governing board Tuesday decided its priority for fiscal year 2006 is to seek increased education funding from the state.

The goal behind setting a legislative agenda is to set talking points for anyone representing the school district to state legislators, said Amphi attorney Todd Jaeger, who is also associate to the superintendent.

Higher accountability standards require more program funding, Jaeger said.

In other business, the board unanimously passed a policy revision allowing for open-enrollment students to ride the bus to school.

The change in transportation policy allows students to participate in district transportation programs where the district has met the needs of all students living within district boundaries and there is capacity remaining.

Jaeger presented information on current district enrollment versus projections and school capacity, giving board members a glimpse of which schools are nearing capacity.

For example, Oro Valley's Painted Sky Elementary has a capacity of 800 students but was at 804 last year. Its current enrollment is at nearly 97 percent of its capacity.

The board is examining these numbers for all Amphi schools so they can determine, classroom by classroom, which rooms can be physically reduced in size to accommodate more classes with fewer students in each class.

In other action, board members handed out several recognition certificates.

Canyon del Oro High School's seven National Merit semifinalists were honored, though three were unable to attend the meeting.

Arshed F. Al-Obeidi, Megan R. Dever-Hansen, Jared T. Hainsworth, Jonathan P. Lo, William N. Snavely, Joseph S. Thomas and Steven J. Wheelwright will find out in the spring whether they are to become National Merit finalists.

In advance of a luncheon next Thursday where the Arizona Teacher of the Year will be announced, the board honored Amphitheater High School foreign languages teacher Stephanie Duisberg for making it to the top 10 out of 60 initial contenders in the state.

This year is Duisberg's 28th in the Amphi district, and she has taught every French, German and Spanish course that Amphi High School offers, including Spanish for native speakers.

* Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at 434-4078 or sshelton@azstarnet.com.

Source: Arizona Daily Star

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