According to the Peace Corps, the University of Arizona (UArizona) ranked sixth in the top ten for institutions offering graduate degree financial aid for returned volunteers. UArizona had a total of 48 students enrolled.
UArizona’s ranking was determined by enrollment in the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program: an opportunity for Peace Corps volunteers to receive financial aid for a graduate degree, becoming Coverdell Fellows. Another perk includes the potential to obtain up to three years of an extended noncompetitive eligibility (NCE) status for federal employment, which Peace Corps volunteers normally enjoy for 12 months. NCE status ensures that returned Peace Corps volunteers are given an edge in the hiring process.
Eligible Peace Corps volunteers are those who complete a full two years of service, are given “completion of service” or “interrupted service” status, medically separated, or Response or Global Health Services Partnership Volunteers that complete 12 months of service in a 24-month period.
The other universities ranked in the top ten were as follows, in order: American University, University of Denver, Brandeis University, Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Emory University, John Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, and the Teachers College of Columbia University.
In a press release, Peace Corps Acting Director Carol Spahn explained that these universities put Coverdell Fellows on track to continue their volunteer service while obtaining higher education.
“We are grateful to partner with these universities to support our returned volunteers as they work toward their academic goals and continue their commitment to lifelong service,” said Spahn. “A graduate degree, in combination with the perspective and skills gained through Peace Corps service, enables returned volunteers to become and inspire our next generation of global leaders.”
UArizona also achieved a similar distinction last February at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, ranking 17 out of the top 20. Over 120 universities and colleges across 38 states accommodate Coverdell Fellows, totaling over 200 programs amounting to over 300 graduate and postgraduate degrees.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) became the latest to join the trend of school boards and state associations leaving the National School Boards Association (NSBA). The CUSD Governing Board voted on Wednesday to cease their annual payment for “National Connection Fees” under the federation, which amounted to $8,620 for this upcoming year.
Only one board member, Lindsay Love, voted against leaving; board member Lara Bruner abstained from voting. The vote against paying the membership fees earned applause from the public in attendance.
NSBA’s national connection fees come with certain perks like advanced and discounted registration for their annual conference, additional leadership and legal resources, insider knowledge on federal policies and developments, national networks, and the latest news.
The advanced and discounted registration to NSBA’s annual conference is the biggest perk. Attendees have access to the premiere vendors and thought leaders in education. Their upcoming conference next April will be held in San Diego, California.
Board member Jason Olive said that he wasn’t aware of any board members attending the annual conference in recent years. Board President Barb Mozdzen confirmed that nobody to her knowledge had gone to the annual conference in four or five years.
Bruner claimed that being part of NSBA was required to maintain policy revisions from Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA). Mozdzen clarified that NSBA membership wasn’t required to get ASBA policies. Superintendent Franklin Narducci added that ASBA reviews state-legislated policies, but NSBA doesn’t.
“It’s my understanding you can be in one without the other, and that they aren’t mutually inclusive of each other,” said Narducci.
Love questioned why they were leaving the NSBA at all. Olive’s reply prompted laughter.
“Uh – so we don’t have to give them any money,” responded Olive.
At that point, Love cited her involvement with NSBA’s National Black Council (NBC). She insinuated that CUSD wouldn’t have representation in the NSBA if they rescinded their membership.
“So essentially [we] as Chandler have direct access to [NSBA] and we impact national policies just by being at the table,” argued Love.
Love’s remarks were met with stretches of silence from her fellow board members.
Bruner voiced her concern again that their withdrawal from NSBA would jeopardize their membership within ASBA. Mozdzen said that the membership fees weren’t due until January, indicating the council had time to revisit the topic until then.
The NSBA has received negative attention nationwide after sending a letter to President Joe Biden last month, asking him to invoke the PATRIOT Act to investigate parents and community members for potential “domestic terrorism.” Less than a week later, the Biden Administration obliged. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to investigate those concerns.
Shortly after the letter’s publication, open records requests revealed that the White House collaborated with the NSBA in their drafting of the letter. A day after the report on these records, the NSBA submitted an apology letter to its membership. Unlike their initial letter to Biden, however, the NSBA didn’t publicize this apology letter.
The mother and father of a middle school student, Amy and Shawn Souza, filed a statement of allegations against Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) with the Arizona State Board of Education for attempting to hide reportedly politicized curriculum from them and ignoring their opt-out requests. According to emails shared with AZ Free News, PUSD Director of Social Studies Curriculum and Instructional Specialist Jennifer Mundy suggested that the teacher and school in question, 7th grade social studies teacher Holli Trentowski at Sunset Heights Elementary, disguise or manipulate the curriculum on its face so that inquisitive parents like them wouldn’t look too closely. Mundy deferred to Marla Woolsey, the district’s Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction, for final say on the matter.
“[Trentowski’s] titles could be toned down a bit. For example, instead of saying ‘Science behind mob mentality,’ she could say ‘The science behind the KKK’s behavior’ or just put Tuesday’s title on Wednesday as well. I’m assuming that she’s teaching about the Ku Klux Klan on Tuesday and following that up with how it’s possible that people could commit the atrocities they did toward African Americans in the South during Reconstruction (and for a century and a few decades afterwards). If kids are thinking, they’ll [sic] on there [sic] own to take it to what happened this past summer as well as what happened at the Capitol a few weeks ago. Analyzing connections and explaining the multiple causes and effects of events past and present are both standards in social studies. The problem does not lie in what Holli is teaching (assuming I’m correct about the path she’s taking this week).”
According to the Souzas’ complaint, PUSD officials attempted to pull a workaround as soon as the Souzas first began to communicate concerns with them about their daughter’s 7th-grade social studies curriculum. Sunset Heights Elementary Principal Rae Conelley even complained about having to meet with the Souzas to discuss their concerns frequently: she stated that she was “going to lose [her] mind.” Conelley also speculated to Mundy and Woolsey that Trentowski was “baiting” the Souzas with her curriculum. “I am going to lose my mind,” wrote Conelley. “If I am off track in my guidance to [Trentowski] please let me know. I almost feel like she’s baiting them now but I’m the one who’s spending time I don’t have meeting with them.”
The Souzas asserted that Trentowski’s curriculum was “developmentally inappropriate and inherently political.” For a section on work conditions in the early 20th century, one of the assigned resources was a graphic, hour-long documentary by PBS on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The 1911 tragedy claimed nearly 150 lives, most of whom were young women and girls.
Despite Trentowski promising to give the Souzas’ daughter an alternative text and place to work, she reportedly gave her the disputed assignment and had her complete it.
The entire ordeal caused the Souzas to remove their children from PUSD. Last week, the Souzas appeared before the PUSD governing board to warn parents and confront the board members about their experience. “We hear all the time at these meetings and from district employees that if you don’t like [the curriculum] opt them out,” said Amy. “We have lost all faith in [the] Peoria Unified School District having the best interest of our kids at heart.”
Must Watch.
Tonight, the Souza family stepped forward to share how @peoriaunified11 violated their parental rights by forcing their daughter to complete an assignment they had opted her out of. pic.twitter.com/Ebpt6edmrG
Free to Learn – a nonprofit organization that advocates for parental rights in education and the removal of political agendas from schools – assisted the Souzas in filing their complaint. In a statement, President Alleigh Marré said that the Souzas’ action should empower other parents.
“By shining a light on this incident with their complaint, Amy and Shawn are setting an example for other parents in Arizona and around the country as they pursue a quality education for their children free of activism,” said Marré. “If parents work within the parameters of the school and follow all the rules, they should see results. Instead, what we saw in Peoria was deceit and an intentional push to keep parents in the dark. At Free to Learn, we want to empower these parents and give them a platform to advocate for their children when all else fails.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Arizona Secretary of State’s office nominated a Phoenix elementary school teacher, Amanda Delphy, for the national John Lewis Youth Leadership Award, due to her classroom activism. Delphy started a “diversity club” at her school and openly teaches her second grade students social-emotional learning (SEL), activism, and “authentic history” primarily focused on black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). SEL is a framework for interpreting and processing subjects – especially complex ones like history or sexuality – through tools like literature, writing, and art to develop certain social and emotional skills. Oftentimes, SEL serves as a vehicle for propagating tenets of controversial concepts like Critical Race Theory (CRT) and social justice. Ultimately, Delphy didn’t win the award – conservative activist C.J. Pearson did last week.
“Amanda Delphy is a second-grade teacher in the West Valley, where she has focused on empowerment through social-emotional practices, conversations about activism, and authentic history lessons that represent BIPOC individuals as powerful,” read the secretary of state’s nomination.
Delphy regularly posts TikTok videos on how she educates her students to understand certain progressive concepts. Most recently, Delphy described how she teaches her second graders about SEL and equity, how Halloween isn’t “culturally responsive” and that the slang term “savage” – used by kids to describe something or someone considered cool for being bold and unbothered by any consequences – is actually offensive to indigenous people. She’s gained over 14,600 followers for her content.
Delphy teaches second grade at Holiday Park School in the Cartwright School District (CSD). The elementary school’s diversity club launched this semester under Delphy’s suggestion; she announced she will lead the club, and has referred to it jokingly as “indoctrination.” Both the school and the district emphasize that SEL is of equal importance to academics.
Delphy claimed in a September video that equity and SEL education in the classroom were necessary to build “future leaders.” Just the day before posting that video, Delphy posted another video lamenting that her students were “very far below grade level.” She explained that her school received a new math curriculum that she liked, but her team was having trouble implementing it due to the students’ capabilities. As a result, Delphy described how she became “extremely escalated,” “frustrated,” and “overstimulated” from trying to teach math to her students. She said that ended the lesson by sharing those feelings with them.
“I just can’t stress enough to always be vulnerable with your kids when you feel like it’s the right time to do so. I didn’t have to tell my kids how I was feeling. I really didn’t,” said Delphy. “But I wanted to because I wanted them to understand that feelings happen and sometimes negative feelings happen too, and even to people like me, who’s a teacher, right?”
SEL and equity are related to Delphy’s teaching moments on how both Halloween and a favorite slang term for kids, “savage,” are problematic.
In a video posted Tuesday, Delphy explained that she told her students she didn’t decorate for Halloween because she didn’t want those who didn’t celebrate Halloween to “feel unsafe or not welcomed.” She also explained that celebrating Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) could result in “cultural appropriation” that would be disrespectful to Hispanics, but said she couldn’t explain what is or isn’t culturally responsive because she “doesn’t identify as Hispanic, Latino, or Chicano.” This video was a follow-up to a similar one at the end of last month, posted as a “reminder” after she’d seen people decorating for Halloween.
In another video posted earlier this month, Delphy complained that one of her second-grade students called cartoon puppies in a video “savage,” inspiring the entire class to do so as well. She explained how she told her students that they were in a “safe space” and therefore they needed to have “honest conversations” about why they couldn’t say the word “savage” in their “safe space.”
“For those of you who don’t know, I’m half Native American and I actually hate that word. [T]here was a huge mass-murdering of Native and indigenous people, hence the population and culture dying the way that it has, and one of the words that were used to label Natives and indigenous people was ‘savages.’ I understand it’s a cool term now, whatever, but no not over here. Don’t bring that negativity over here,” said Delphy. “I let them know where the word ‘savages’ came from and why it hurts me as a Native person. And I told them that my goal is to create a safe space for everyone, and I just wanted to be honest with them and ask them if they could just not use that word in our safe space.”
Delphy added that this wasn’t her pushing an agenda pertaining to social justice or modern liberalism.
“This didn’t push a ‘social justice, liberal agenda,’ as many of you people call it. This was just me being honest about something that was traumatic to my ancestors and people before me and my people now, and my people in the future,” said Delphy. “Don’t be afraid to have those conversations with your students. My kids are eight years old, and they can understand it!”
Delphy also sells educational resources through “Teachers Pay Teachers,” a collective of supplementary curriculum created and sold by teachers to other educators. One of Delphy’s resources summarizes the origins of Thanksgiving, which she claimed was established as a celebration to thank Native Americans for their kindness to the early settlers. In reality, Thanksgiving had to do with a longstanding tradition expressing gratitude to God – Native Americans just happened to be there for one hosted by the early Plymouth colonists.
“What is Thanksgiving?” read the resource. “It is a Holiday that is the fourth Thursday of every November. It has also been told that the Pilgrims came across a tribe of Native people who taught the pilgrims how to hunt and gather so that they could survive. The story continues that Thanksgiving is meant to represent the large celebration that the Pilgrims held for the Natives to say ‘thank you’.”
In history predating the colonial settlements and long after, thanksgivings were regular celebrations thanking God for His blessings such as a good harvest, health, or military victories; in 1798, the Continental Congress proclaimed a national thanksgiving for the Constitution’s enactment. Thanksgiving Day as known to modern America was first called for by the “Mother of Thanksgiving:” a famed women’s rights activist and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” poet, Sarah Josepha Hale, to unite the nation and ease tensions between the North and South – she had the idea from the annual thanksgivings that her family celebrated. President Abraham Lincoln heeded Hale’s call in 1863 as the Civil War raged on – his proclamation called for a “Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer” to occur the last Thursday of November, with no mention of the Native Americans.
Delphy’s presentation characterized the settlers as callous, selfish people who took advantage of Native Americans.The resource also taught that wearing any traditional Native American items, like headdresses, was disrespectful. Delphy has displayed her prioritization of Native Americans over other races to her students. Last week, she wore a shirt that read “The Future Is Indigenous.”
Other resources sold by Delphy teach about Women’s History Month, Black History Month, Indigenous People’s Day, and Native American Heritage Month.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Matt Salmon, a Republican gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. Representative for Arizona’s fifth district, asked the Arizona School Board Association (ASBA) to disaffiliate from the National School Board Association (NSBA). His request was prompted by the NSBA’s move against parents protesting and challenging their school boards; the organization asked the Biden Administration in a letter to investigate those parents for “hate group” activity and potential “domestic terrorism.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland complied; he promised that the FBI was on the case.
In his letter to ASBA, Salmon reasoned that ASBA shouldn’t support the NSBA’s attempt to have the Biden Administration intimidate parents by investigating them for domestic terrorism.
“[I]t has become crystal clear to the American people that NSBA’s real problem is with everyday parents who are not okay with what is happening in our classrooms,” wrote Salmon. “The bottom line is that I find NSBA’s antagonistic posturing toward concerned parents to be deeply inappropriate and frankly un-American.”
Salmon also asked the ASBA if they consulted about the NSBA’s letter to President Joe Biden ahead of its submission. If they did, he requested to know if they helped edit it.
“I am proud to stand with each and every parent who cares enough to get into this fight for a brighter future, and I hope that efforts will be made by ASBA to reaffirm support for civic engagement in local school board meetings, which cannot be properly achieved until you sever your partnership with NSBA and the poor judgment of its leaders,” concluded Salmon.
Salmon told ASBA that they wouldn’t be leading the pack when it came to withdrawing from the NSBA, noting that Pennsylvania did so last week. He also cited how both Louisiana and Florida’s state chapters condemned the NSBA’s letter.
“TODAY I wrote a letter urging @AzSBA to take immediate steps to withdraw its affiliation with @NSBAPublicEd,” wrote Salmon. “By attempting to intimidate concerned parents, NSBA has disqualified itself from enjoying the benefits of a formal relationship with Arizona.”
TODAY I wrote a letter urging @AzSBA to take immediate steps to withdraw its affiliation with @NSBAPublicEd.
By attempting to intimidate concerned parents, NSBA has disqualified itself from enjoying the benefits of a formal relationship with Arizona.
ASBA is no longer the only option for school board members. Last week, a coalition of Arizonans launched an alternative to ASBA: the Arizona Coalition of School Board Members (ACSBM). Unlike ASBA, ACSBM offers membership to parents and community members in addition to school board members, and they claim to offer the same caliber of resources and legislative advocacy that ASBA offers currently.
As of press time, ASBA hasn’t issued a public response to Salmon’s letter.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Arizona State University (ASU), University of Arizona (UArizona), and Northern Arizona University (NAU) will require their employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by December 8. This latest development is due to the Biden Administration’s order for federal contractors and subcontractors to get vaccinated by the hard deadline of December 8. The universities’ mandates will also affect student workers.
The Arizona Board of Regents explained that the three universities have substantial federal contracts that necessitate compliance with the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate.
“The universities have hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts, funding critical research, employment and educational efforts,” stated spokesperson Julie Newberg. “We respect individual opinions regarding the vaccine and will include disability (including medical) and religious accommodations consistent with federal rules.”
UArizona President Dr. Robert Robbins reiterated the reality of their situation in an email to employees: the universities rely heavily on millions of dollars in contracts with the federal government.
“President Biden recently issued an Executive Order that requires institutions that contract with the federal government, such as the University of Arizona, to comply with guidance from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force,” wrote Robbins. “The University has hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts, funding critical research, employment, and educational efforts, and already has received amended federal contracts that include this requirement.”
Governor Doug Ducey hasn’t issued any statements on the three universities’ mandates as of press time, though he has expressed ardent disapproval for both vaccine and masking mandates, as well as issued orders to curtail these mandates and approved legislation outlawing them.
Per the universities’ latest published reports, ASU has over 17,000 employees, UArizona has over 16,000 employees, and NAU has just under 5,000 employees.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
