Opening Minds Through the Arts - OMA

Your Help Needed to Pass TUSD Override!

On Nov. 4, 2008, our children’s future is in our hands. Tucson Unified School District will ask voters to pass Prop. 403. This override initiative will allow our schools to receive 10 percent more money above the present budget limit, approximately $28 million a year for the first five years and a lesser amount for two more years.
Arizona ranks 49th in per-pupil spending nationwide. This is a drastic drop from the l980s, when we were 26th. To compete in the global, high- tech economy, Tucson must provide more resources for our own education system.
TUSD educates 58,000 students in the Tucson metro area and is the only school district in Tucson that operates without an override.

Prop. 403 funding will go directly to the classroom to:
1. Reduce class sizes
a. No more than 18 students in all K-2 classrooms
b. No more than 22 students in all middle school math classes
2. Expand the award-winning Opening minds through the Arts program
a. Provide OMA program to all students in all 73 TUSD elementary schools.
b. Provide OMA program to all students in all 20 TUSD middle schools
3. Provide employee incentives for hard-to-fill positions
a. Offer salary/wage incentives to all highly-qualified TUSD employees in hard-to-fill positions – particularly in middle school.

Small class size and OMA have a track record within the district of improving student achievement in math, science, reading and writing.
State law requires the district to spend money raised by Prop. 403 only on the programs voters approve. Additionally, a Citizens Oversight Committee will be formed to ensure the money is spent as directed by voters.
Money spent on education is the best-spent investment we can make. In Arizona, it costs $36,000 a year to house a prisoner, the majority of whom are illiterate. For a fraction of that cost, we can invest in our children to ensure future generations of educated, productive citizens.
We need your help. Please make a generous contribution and volunteer time to the Invest In Our Kids campaign. We need donations and volunteers to operate the campaign, which will include mailings, yard signs and phone banks to contact voters. Please help us pass Prop. 403 — it is an investment in our kids, our schools and our future.
Sincerely,
The Invest in Our Kids Committee

You can help

TUSD Employee Groups unanimously Support the override

Donn Poll facilitates strategic planning, provides ongoing strategic counsel to organization leaders and delivers communication planning and management services. He is a consultant and strategist for organizations that are increasing their performance by focusing on the critical relationships that define their abilities to thrive.

Donn has bachelors degrees (cum laude, Minnesota State University) in mass communications and design. He started his career as a daily newspaper editor, a weekly newspaper co-owner and a corporate trade editor. For 20 years he ran The Poll Group, a marketing communication agency that provided contract and project services to corporate and public sector clients. He has also involved himself in a number of entrepreneurial enterprises, developing venture business plans and assisting startups. Since 2001 he has provided consulting and contract services to public agencies and nonprofit organizations.

He has been a speaker and teacher at college and high school journalism settings nationally as a board member of the National Scholastic Press Association and through the Columbia (University) Scholastic Press Association. Donn has served on the boards of nonprofit and professional organizations.

OMA is a nationally recognized research-based program that integrates the arts into teaching reading, writing, math and science in public elementary and middle schools. Currently, over 19,000 students and 700 teachers in 44 schools in the Tucson Unified School District are participating in the OMA program working with 53 Teaching Artists. OMA staff is available for consultation with other school districts as well. OMA works!