ICYMI: Flint's school district has been in a free-falling crisis in the decade since the water crisis began, with a 35% 4-year grad rate, and a 55% enrollment decline.
What will it take to put the district on the right path?
I missed this part of the press conference because I was talking to the superintendent of an AZ school district where three teachers contracted COVID-19 teaching summer school in the same room.
One teacher died. They took every precaution, the superintendent said.
Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine of Maricopa County Department of Public Health "What we know is children learn best in an in-person environment. With community- wide transmission at such high levels right now, it would not be a good idea to put school back in session."
They wore masks. They kept space. They used disinfectant. But all three Arizona teachers in a team teaching model in one room came down with COVID-19 and one, Kim Byrd, died.
"We're going to lose a lot of teachers if they bring the kids back again."
I missed this part of the press conference because I was talking to the superintendent of an AZ school district where three teachers contracted COVID-19 teaching summer school in the same room.
One teacher died. They took every precaution, the superintendent said.
This is the first school shooting I've had to cover in my four years as an education reporter. It is as terrible and confusing as many have described. My heart is breaking for every student and parent and this whole community.
Wow, just a classic example of a man dismissing education as "women's work" or not important.
I can't stand one more day of people disregarding education journalism because of their own internalized misogyny.
Congrats on the move. But how much did
@mpolletta
abhor
@azcentral
to go from the premier beat at the state’s largest paper to the education beat? Answer: A LOT
Hi everyone - I have some news!
Next Tuesday (2/23) is my last day
@azcentral
. I started reading The Arizona Republic at age 13, when I first moved here. Covering K-12 education here has been a dream and an honor.
Trump on his message to parents worried about the safety of their kids in public schools amid a pandemic: "Yeah, the schools should be opened. Schools should be opened. Kids want to go to schools. You're losing a lot of lives by keeping things closed."
I’m thinking back to last week when we interviewed a survivor of December’s Oxford shooting who said survivors in Parkland were the closest to “getting anyone to listen.”
He said Oxford felt like a trend on Twitter and “then we were gone.”
Morning! It's my first day covering inequities in education at
@freep
. I'll be covering these issues across Michigan. I've got *a lot* to learn, but I'm really excited for this new beat.
no we’re definitely still covering COVID-19 and protests. And we’re covering all that while we get furloughed, laid off, and criticized by people who somehow think haphazardly scrolling through their Twitter news feed equates to actually reading the news
We know the media leans left - this is beyond politics. I’m not sure anything will erode the public’s trust more than the last 10 days. To go from canvassing beaches to shame a few people for not social distancing to covering thousands with no mention of coronavirus is stunning.
good morning to everyone except my sister who just said about local journalism, "it's hard to justify shelling out money for what's widely free." I would like to clear up this misconception
Arizona now the highest for COVID in the nation. Schools continue to close, Chandler Unified being the latest. Businesses are still open.
Chandler's board president, at state inaction: "I truly question the commitment of our state to educating kids."
I’m fed up with a narrative focused solely on TV and national news. This week alone I covered reopening plans for Arizona schools, teacher salaries, on-campus police, and systemic racism claims at a Gilbert school.
My colleagues did even more. Start reading local. Pay attention.
To recap: I asked Ducey what might be included in the benchmarks and we did not hear what specific data we'll be relying on. He said there's a menu of options for parents.
What parents don't have: Any clear sense of whether it's safe to go back or the expectations for schools.
Actually I know of many journalists who came from highly privileged backgrounds, which is partly why there is so much inequity in this business... journalists should think more critically about writing lines like this
Sinema's aide once physically blocked me in 2017, her hand on my shoulder, to prevent me from asking a question about Backpage donations. This was after weeks of calling her office every day to no avail.
She was at my journalism school giving a talk about the first amendment.
No response from
@SenatorSinema
to my questions about reconciliation top lines, whether she opposes tax increases to pay for it, or whether she owes Arizonans more public explanations of her positions.
BREAKING: AZ DHS, county public health are not recommending widespread school closures in Arizona, per Supt. Hoffman in conference call with Ducey, districts.
I've confirmed with Gilbert Public Schools that bus driver Roy Haug passed away on Oct. 13. Reports, including from his sister-in-law, state that Roy contracted COVID-19.
Really glad others have heard Byrd’s story, but it’s disheartening to see CNN and others parachute in on this story without crediting
@azcentral
, which first reported
And while the schools announcement was major, the education reporter for the paper of-record in the state... did not get to ask a question. I'm one of very few reporters in this state who only covers K-12, and unless I heard wrong, none of the others were called on either.
I am SO exhausted by the notion that education journalism is "less than" or "not investigative." I cannot tell you how many men have implicitly or not-so-implicitly told me that the beat I love, a beat centered around children and inequities, is lesser than male-centric beats.
Actually I know of many journalists who came from highly privileged backgrounds, which is partly why there is so much inequity in this business... journalists should think more critically about writing lines like this
really excited to share that I bought a custom Panera themed bicycle off of FB Marketplace, complete with a bread bowl baskets. It joins my limited edition Sharpie adult razor scooter
They wore masks. They kept space. They used disinfectant. But all three Arizona teachers in a team teaching model in one room came down with COVID-19 and one, Kim Byrd, died.
"We're going to lose a lot of teachers if they bring the kids back again."
NEW: Balsz teachers this week will begin a series of workshops about The 1619 Project. The goal is for teachers to bring lessons from the project to the classroom. This makes Balsz one of the first in the state to use the initiative led by
@nhannahjones
Also, in news not related to a pandemic shutting all the schools down, I adopted this sweet boy from
@azhumane
! His name is Winston. 😭He’ll be working (and cuddling) long days with me to make sure you have all the education news.
So, to recap, Mesa, the state's largest school district, just passed a letter to educators in support of their
#RedForEd
efforts. Tomorrow around 70 of the district's 80 schools will conduct walk-ins. Board has directed the letter to be sent to the AZ legislature and governor.
Picked him up and he was smiling/tail wagging! I adopted a dog with BIG anxiety, which is a good match for my own personality. He reminds me to patient and empathetic. Plus, he is a very sweet cuddler and it's so much fun to watch him slowly open up the world.
NEW: Ducey says school guideline changes made at the request of leading education officials, the state's leading education officials says she made no such request (I've asked ADHS and Ducey to provide a list of those consulted)
18 year-old Hugo Gastelum is skipping calculus to vote. As he puts it, there's no "voting tutors" but there are calculus tutors to help him catch up. He's in the back of the line at ASU's polling place.
#ElectionDayAZ
A school board comment from a Mesa student: "How are you going to help a teacher that got sick? Are you going to tell those students that their teacher died? How are you going to help the students affected by their teacher's death? And how are you going to deal with the guilt..."
There is a young Tik Tok user who appears to go out to Scottsdale bars and clubs nearly every night with big groups and has traveled multiple times in the last two months. I’m just... so... tired
Just spoke to a doctor from Harvard's school of public health who specializes in airborne infection who said in his opinion, schools in Arizona should not reopen because of the level of transmission in the state.
This is a bad take. School violence - gun or otherwise -
impacts kids. Threats do. I get an alert of a school threat every day. This is not normal.
39,000 undergraduate students attend MSU and scores of them are managing trauma in ways they never have before.
School gun violence is exceedingly rare. Focusing on it hurts kids and schools. And the reporting process can be traumatic for survivors & journalists alike.
So why are we doing it, again? On the 5th anniversary of Parkland, I propose we stop.
69 Arizona physicians sign onto letter calling a return to in-person schooling in August "dangerous," join calls to delay in-person school until at least October
yes bc of course my email habits to elected officials we're trying to hold accountable would mirror my habits in dating... obligatory: would you have tweeted this if I were a man
The critical race theory fight in AZ is a rebrand of the Purple For Parents fight against equity programs that dates back to at least 2019, if not longer. It started with misinformation about sex ed and morphed into misinformation about equity
Today I am proud to sign HB 2906, prohibiting the concerning practice of critical race theory, the latest action in just the past week to prevent the teaching of critical race theory in Arizona public schools and other government entities 1/
it's inequities, not inequalities.... I'm proud to do journalism that focuses on disparities in our education systems, and proud that
@freep
saw the value in this beat
Now-a-Days,
@Freep
writers do not even hide their bias…it’s written into their bios
Here, Lily Altavena (
@lilyalta
) does not merely say she covers Ed Issues, rather “Inequalities” in Education
Starts with Leftist Agenda Item, searches for “evidence” to support her premise
@JessicaHuseman
I guess I'd ask, why does she, or any artist, owe you music that's empowering? And was there a meeting where we decided what's an OK/not OK reaction to a breakup? Or what's normal/not normal?
New, today: Loud noises are hard for Lauren, now a survivor of 2 mass shootings, Oxford and MSU.
Find yourself scanning a room for danger? Looking for exits? Flinching at loud noises
After Oxford, I did. How layers of trauma create hypervigilance:
Parents, teachers: I'm tracking COVID-19 cases and outbreaks in Arizona schools, but I need your help. If you hear of an exposure, or if your school notifies you of an exposure, please contact me: Lily.Altavena
@arizonarepublic
.com. (also, pls RT)
NEW: This morning I interviewed the educators who got sick in rural Arizona after teaching summer school together. One still has a cough. The other is still testing positive. They are both feeling raw and heartbroken over the death of their friend.
So I don’t have COVID but somehow managed to come down with pneumonia!!! The last 24 hours have not been fun!! Here’s a reminder that other respiratory illnesses are still out there, wear a mask, stay safe and stay home so our hospitals aren’t overwhelmed.
@AlexandriaV2005
Probably a sign that you need to diversify your media diet if you don't consider the LA Times or SF Chronicle "major news outlets." Don't erase local journalism. Fresno Bee and Sac Bee also covering the fires extensively.
If you don't think this kind of journalism is important, you're part of the problem. And it's more than just saying you think education journalism is important. Invest in your education journalists.
An embarrassing thing I’ve done now for six months has been eating those Caulipower chicken tenders thinking they were cauliflower. Today I learned it’s chicken. The breading is cauliflower.
Please subscribe to your local newspaper.
I'm the only education reporter at the paper, covering Arizona's 1.1 million public school students.
Some smaller Gannett papers don't even have education reporters. Some don't have health reporters.
New today:
@Gannett
announced unpaid newsroom furloughs of 1 week per month during April, May and June. We’re told journalists earning more than $38K are subject to the plan. This is prompted by COVID-19
Got a little misty-eyed today. I’m working at my hometown paper, in the town my mom grew up in and was a newspaper reporter, on its 190th birthday. Happy 190th,
@freep
! You don’t look a day over 30.
I don't have words. Please tell me this is a joke. Nearly every story my colleagues and I wrote in the past five months has been about COVID-19.
Subscribe to a local newspaper before tweeting about how the news didn't cover _______.
JUST IN:
#Arizona
's Prop 208 approved, per
@AP
.
Will impose a 3.5% income tax surcharge on taxable annual income over $250K for single persons, $500K for couples.
Could bring in nearly $1 billion of new revenue annually to the state’s underfunded school system.
@KOLDNews
I interviewed two teens for this story forever changed by what they saw and heard on Tuesday. One froze through the gunfire, but two quick-thinking freshman may have saved her life.
The politics of reopening schools – specifically reopening in-person as quickly as possible – will all but ensure that 50 million children enrolled public schools will be back to remote learning for the 2020-21 academic year, public health experts warn
hey education reporters (and parents and educators and students and humans), if you're like to me, you're probably feeling ground down by yet another uncertain and chaotic back-to-school season.
Don't live on Twitter and try to take a break from the noise. ❤️
This is not OK. Our photographers, especially Patrick, go above and beyond in taking care in their photos when children are involved. This is not how adults act.
Rattled. Was just accosted while taking photos at a baseball tournament in Mesa. Parents yelled for me to not take pictures of their kid. I agreed and asked which kid was theirs. They didn’t want to say and said if I did they would “kick my ass.” They yelled I was the fake
Checked in with a few K-12 survivors who were at MSU last night. The trauma is tremendous. MSU is offering resources. Reporters, please consult the Dart Center on trauma reporting before you interview.