Holiday road

This is Patti Rose and Rosalio Acosta from Harold W. Smith. You might remember both of them won a staycation weekend for perfect attendance at our opening of school celebration. Well, they got their prizes: a night stay at the Marriot McDowell Mountain, and a two night stay at the Renaissance Downtown.

Have a great Fall Break

We hope all of you have a wonderful and relaxing Fall Break. No matter what you’re doing — visiting family and friends or heading off to parts unknown — we hope you comeback recharged. We are moved every day by the dedication you show to our students. Please know that the work you do every day on behalf of our students is not just recognized, but appreciated. You’ve more than earned your break.

And finally, as our communications director likes to remind us as we leave for holidays and weekends, “Keep your name out of the paper.”

Appeals court stays order for state to pay up in 301 lawsuit

From our colleagues at the Arizona School Boards Association:

We wanted to take this time to update you on a recent court action regarding the Prop. 301 inflation lawsuit. This week, the Arizona Court of Appeals issued a stay on Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper's order that the Legislature reset the base student support level immediately (a $340 million impact to the state budget). This means there is no current order in place to enforce the judgment. We will now move to expedite the hearing on the substance of the appeal itself; however, we expect that this will take months, not weeks to happen.

A few takeaway points about this development:

• The fact that the Court of Appeals issued a discretionary stay instead of an automatic stay as the State requested, is a good sign for us. Also a good sign was that it was a 2-1 vote on the Court of Appeals panel to issue the stay - most stays do not have a dissenting vote.
• There are very active, on-going talks to settle the lawsuit in its entirety. The stay will not be a factor in those talks continuing.
• Litigation of this type can be long and arduous, complicated and unpredictable. Therefore, it is in all parties' best interests to settle the lawsuit and begin funding education with additional dollars as soon as possible. We all serve the students that would benefit from such an action.
• Finally, know that the plaintiffs - ASBA, the Arizona Education Association and the Arizona Association of School Business Officials as well as our school district partners, will not make any deal that is not in our members' best interests.

In case you forgot, performance pay went out this week

Not that we have to remind you, but . . .

GESD teachers and administrators who qualify received the second half of their performance pay in yesterday’s paychecks.

The October payment is for the student achievement portion of the performance pay plan, and represents half of performance pay. Because of changes to the state testing system and a suspension of school letter grades, all teachers and administrators who qualify got the maximum payout to which they’re entitled. The District’s total allotment for performance pay is based on revenues the state collects under the guidelines of Proposition 301.

Two changes made to Professional Development calendar

There has been two changes to the Professional Development Calendar to accommodate for data analysis of Benchmarks on Oct. 21 and February parent-teacher-student conference week. Please see the revised PD Calendar here.

Free flu shots — no strings attached.

All GESD employees — and we mean ALL — can get a free flu shot this year . . . no strings attached, no forms to bring, and no insurance cards to present.

Shots will be given at the annual Employee Road Show, Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 2 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. in the gym at Landmark.

And after getting your flu shot, check out the more than 300 discounts being offered to GESD employees. You’ll also want to enter the drawing to win a free tablet by filling out this form.