Monday, October 12, 2020
With three seats up for grabs on the Tucson Unified School District’s school board, seven new candidates are vying for a chance to govern Tucson’s largest school district.
A local watchdog group that critically monitors the district, CARE 4 TUSD, hosted an online forum Thursday night for each candidate to outline their views on issues including reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic, dwindling enrollment numbers and what they would cut from the district’s budget.
Although the current TUSD board has approved a new hybrid learning model, they have yet to vote on a date to return to in-person instruction.
The candidates running for three board positions include Ravi Grivois-Shah, Natalie Luna Rose, Nicolas Pierson, Adam Ragan, Sadie Shaw, Cindy Winston and write-in candidate Cristina Mennella.
Three volunteer, nonpartisan positions on the school board are opening when the terms of current board members Bruce Burke, Kristel Foster and Rachael Sedgwick expire in November.
While the candidates answered questions on a variety of topics at CARE 4 TUSD’s candidate forum, here are the highlights on what they had to say at the virtual gathering.
Meet the candidates
The University of Arizona will allow students to attend in-person classes of 30 students or fewer this week, UA President Robert C. Robbins said in a news conference Monday, Oct. 12.
The change will bring 1,500 more students to campus every week, and classes will continue “if and only if” public health data gauging the spread of coronavirus in the county permits, Robbins said.
The university first predicted 2,500 students would return to class as it moves into Phase 2 of its reopening plan, but fewer students wanted to return than expected.
“Students and their instructors had the opportunity to evaluate what they wanted, and in the spirit of shared governance, make collective decisions about how to proceed at this point,” Robbins said. “There are many, many students who want that in-person interaction . . . but obviously, there are people who don’t want it.”
From Oct. 1-10, UA found 42 positive coronavirus cases after administering 6,963 tests for a positivity rate of 0.6%, down from 2.3% in the previous 10-day period.
“What we’ve been able to show over the last two, four weeks . . . is an ability of how we respond,” Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen said at the press conference. “We’ve developed this deep collaboration, transparency, sharing of data, sharing resources and a recognition that working together is required for us to combat this pandemic.”
During the past week, the university’s CART team, a collaboration with the UA and Tucson police departments that looks for incidents of noncompliance to COVID-19 precautions, issued five university-related red tags, seven citations and eight code-of-conduct referrals.
Robbins said nine parties CART responded to had more than 10 people, while three parties had about 50.
“It’s important that more and more, we see less and less of these large gatherings, which really are events that you might even term super spreader events when they become too large,” said Richard Carmona, UA Reentry Task Force Director.
Robbins said the university has no recorded cases of COVID-19 transmission within a classroom or laboratory setting.
With six weeks left in UA’s fall semester, the administration is looking ahead to potential coronavirus-spreading events. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and many students have traveling plans during fall break.
“We’re working hard to prevent an uptick in positive cases, in part because it could impact positive rates as students are preparing to travel home for the fall break,” Robbins said.
Robbins outlined steps the university is asking students to take to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which include requiring all main campus students to complete a survey with their fall break traveling plans.
UA will also conduct a “testing blitz” from Nov. 9-15, and those who test positive will be required to quarantine for 10 days. Students are also “strongly encouraged” to complete the semester remotely if they travel.
Robbins said a “small number” will be allowed to travel and return to campus in-person, and students will be able to stay on campus during the fall break to access the university’s WiFi.
“We are all happy that all the processes we’ve put in place have resulted in these changes,” Carmona said. “But we still aren’t happy enough to not be very aggressive and continue these processes to keep those numbers down.”
With 475 new cases reported today, the number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 226,000 as of Monday, Oct. 12, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County had seen 26,465 of the state’s 226,050 confirmed cases.
A total of 5,759 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 633 deaths in Pima County, according to the Oct. 12 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases continues to decline from July peaks. ADHS reported that as of Oct. 11, 667 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state. That number peaked with 3,517 hospitalized COVID patients on July 13.
A total of 710 people visited emergency rooms on Oct. 11 with COVID symptoms. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7.
A total of 155 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Oct. 11. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.
On a week-by-week basis in Pima County, the number of positive COVID tests peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,453 cases, according to an Oct. 7 report from the Pima County Health Department. With the return of UA students, local numbers ticked upward in September but have begun to decline again. For the week ending Sept. 5, a total of 863 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 12, 1,105 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 19, 1,219 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 26, 582 cases were reported; for the week ending Oct. 3, 472 cases were reported. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
Deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 54 in the week ending July 4 to 10 in the week ending Sept. 5, one in the week ending Sept. 12, three in the week ending Sept. 19, two in the week ending Sept. 26 and one in the week ending Oct. 3. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
Hospitalization peaked the week ending July 18 with 221 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals. In the week ending Aug. 29, 37 COVID patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; in the week ending Sept. 5, 26 patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; in the week ending Sept. 12, 23 patients were admitted; in the week ending Sept. 19, 14 patients were admitted; in the week ending Sept. 26, 11 people were admitted and in the week ending Oct. 3, 17 patients were admitted. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
Amphi School District begins in-person classes today
The Amphi School District will start hybrid learning with in-classroom instruction starting today.
Students will attend smaller classes two days a week and learn remotely three days a week.
Friday, October 9, 2020
As early ballots arrived in mailboxes across Pima County this week, registered Democrats are concerned about a suspicious text alerting voters they’re not registered as permanent mail voters—when in fact, they are.
The Pima County Recorder's Office even issued a warning to not open the text’s link to a Vote.org page on their Twitter account Thursday, Oct. 8, suspecting it could be fraudulent.
Registered Democrat Kristi Williams was perplexed by the text she received around 3 p.m. on Thursday saying she was not a permanent mail voter. When she opened her mailbox moments later, there sat the sage green envelope containing her early ballot.
“I was confused at first. I’ve been doing early voting for many years so I was shocked by the text,” Williams said. “I was also worried after seeing the link in the text that someone was trying to fish for information and trying to make it so my vote didn’t count.
Williams forwarded the text to her husband, Pima County Superintendent of Schools Dustin Williams, who warned the Pima County Democratic Party and officials at the County Recorder's Office.
Turns out the text was sent by Oakland-based Resistance Labs, a political text-bank that supports progressive grassroots causes and candidates. The organization was helping facilitate early ballot registration texts for another group, Vote From Home 2020. Resistance Labs CEO Yoni Landau responded via email that his organization sends out tens of millions of texts a day and errors are inevitable.
“Our data is over 90 percent accurate,” Landau wrote. “We reach out beforehand to the Sec. of State staff in good faith before we start texting. We also immediately paused our texting and changed our script as soon as the Pima County staff let us know there was a problem with a link and with the data source.”
Landau estimates no more than 2,000 Pima County Democrats received the text since the company did not receive complaints from their texters, he wrote.
However, the Pima County Recorder's Office received enough complaints to issue Thursday’s Twitter alert, county officials said.
The episode highlights heightened concerns about disinformation regarding early ballots, which growing numbers of Arizona voters have embraced in recent decades. More than three out of four voters cast ballots by mail or by dropping their ballots off at polling stations in 2018 and that number is expected to grow this year with voters avoiding polling places because of the risk of contracting coronavirus.
In an email, Vote.org Director of Programs Sydney Rose wrote, “There are many organizations who use our tools and this is an example of them linking to our resources within their messaging.”
Vote From Home 2020 has a goal of contacting 393,000 Arizona voters during the 2020 election, according to their website.
The Pima County Recorder’s Office recommends contacting them at 520-724-4350 if you receive suspicious texts and phone calls during the election year.
Thursday, October 8, 2020
A local watchdog group that critically monitors the Tucson Unified School District will hold a forum with the seven candidates running for three open seats on the district’s school board at 6:30 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Oct. 8.
CARE (Coalition for Accountability, Respect and Excellence,) a group that aims to hold TUSD board members accountable, will give the candidates a chance to answer questions emailed by constituents.
The seven candidates running for three open school board positions include Ravi Grivois-Shah, Natalie Luna Rose, Nicolas Pierson, Adam Ragan, Sadie Shaw, Cindy Winston and write-in candidate Cristina Mennella.
Three volunteer, nonpartisan positions on the school board are opening when the terms of current board members Bruce Burke, Kristel Foster and Rachael Sedgwick expire in November.The candidate forum will be available live at: youtube.com/channel/UCNxtVlmWkpT8K9NzP8DGy-g?view_as=subscriber
Meet the candidates
Ravi Grivois-Shah: Family physician
Natalie Luna Rose: Communications manager for the Arizona Center for Disability Law
Cristina Mennella (write-in candidate): Speech-language pathologist
Nicolas Pierson: Former U.S. Army veteran and financial advisor
Adam Ragan: Public high school teacher
Sadie Shaw: Art educator
Cindy Winston: Science teacher
With 863 new cases reported today, the number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases closed in on 223,000 as of Thursday, Oct. 8, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
With 125 new cases today, Pima County had seen 26,217 of the state’s 223,401 confirmed cases.
With 10 new deaths today, a total of 5,743 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 630 deaths in Pima County, according to the Oct. 8 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases continues to decline from July peaks but has steadily creeped upward this week. ADHS reported that as of Oct. 7, 728 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state, an increase of . While that number has increased by 183 since Saturday, Oct. 3, it’s still far below the peak of 3,517 hospitalized COVID patients set on July 13.
A total of 744 people visited emergency rooms on Oct. 7 with COVID symptoms. That number, which peaked at 2,008 on July 7, has also been on the rise this week.
A total of 156 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Oct. 7, up from 133 on Saturday, Oct. 3. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.
On a week-by-week basis in Pima County, the number of positive COVID tests peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,453 cases, according to an Oct. 7 report from the Pima County Health Department. With the return of UA students, local numbers ticked upward in September but have begun to decline again. For the week ending Sept. 5, a total of 863 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 12, 1,105 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 19, 1,219 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 26, 582 cases were reported; for the week ending Oct. 3, 472 cases were reported. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
Deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 54 in the week ending July 4 to 10 in the week ending Sept. 5, one in the week ending Sept. 12, three in the week ending Sept. 19, two in the week ending Sept. 26 and one in the week ending Oct. 3. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
Hospitalization peaked the week ending July 18 with 221 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals. In the week ending Aug. 29, 37 COVID patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; in the week ending Sept. 5, 26 patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; in the week ending Sept. 12, 23 patients were admitted; in the week ending Sept. 19, 14 patients were admitted; in the week ending Sept. 26, 11 people were admitted and in the week ending Oct. 3, 17 patients were admitted. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
CDC report supports use of masks, physical distancing
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examines how effective Arizona’s mitigation measures were on stopping the increase of COVID-19. The report, which tracked case numbers from Jan. 22 to Aug. 7, shows a clear correlation in reduced virus cases after face masks and social distancing were mandated.
In Arizona, the average number of daily virus cases increased approximately 151% after the statewide stay-at-home order was lifted in mid-May, with Gov. Doug Ducey declaring “we are clearly on the other side of this pandemic.”
According to CDC data, two weeks after Arizona's stay-at-home orders were first lifted on May 15, daily new COVID cases increased from 808 on June 1 to 2,026 on June 15. This led to a peak in cases from June 29 to July 2. Cases then began to reduce after Ducey allowed local officials to implement their own mandates on June 17. The ensuing local policies were applicable to approximately 85% of the total Arizona population.
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
TUSD Delays Return to In-Person Instruction Until November (at the Soonest), Unveils New Hybrid Plan
The Tucson Unified School District’s governing board approved a new hybrid learning model for returning to classes but delayed voting on when to implement it.
In a 4-1 vote, the board approved the new model but put off deciding on a return date until the next TUSD board meeting Oct. 27.
Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo asked board members to consider a new start date for the revised hybrid model on Nov. 12, dependent on Pima County data tracking the spread of coronavirus in the county.
To move to the hybrid model, TUSD must meet criteria from Pima County’s COVID-19 Progress Report, which tracks local disease data, healthcare capacity and public health capacity. As of Oct. 1, eight of the nine health criteria are making “progress” or have been officially “met.”
Pima County has not met the benchmark of a two-week decline in the number of COVID-19 cases, and therefore, the district does not currently meet guidelines set out by the Pima County Health Department to return to in-person classes.
Trujillo says this guideline hasn’t been met because of some TUSD schools’ proximity to the University of Arizona campus.
“TUSD is unique amongst the school districts in that we have six schools that are directly on the U of A campus or adjacent to it, so this is really close to home for us,” Trujillo said. “It’s the fact that the COVID-19 spike at the U of A has most influenced the movement backward of this key metric in the last two weeks that still does have me concerned.”
According to a survey taken by more than 20,000 parents and teachers within TUSD, 56% support remote learning only, while 44% support returning to classes with a hybrid model.
“This hybrid model places education utterly last on the list of priorities,” Cheryl Watters, a teacher and parent in the district said in an email read aloud at the board meeting. “Instead of teaching, I will be disinfecting my classrooms and monitoring my students to be sure they are complying with the safety protocols. I will now be responsible for the physical health of my students. How can I focus on teaching when I carry that weight?”
Vicki Saunders, an office assistant at Rincon High School, wrote, “I’m strongly in favor of moving to a hybrid model on Oct. 19, because our students are asking to return and begging to return... We have so many students struggling academically, mentally and physically.”
Largely split on the decision of returning to schools, the TUSD board voted to delay the vote 3-2 with members Adelita Grijalva and Rachael Sedgwick opposing.
“If this item passes and we table this until [Oct.] 27, I would hope that on that date, we can have a real honest discussion about pushing this off and the majority of the board will make a decision then,” Grijalva said. “While I know that our teachers are in limbo and will feel it, I think that will give us an opportunity to get some breathing room.”
Sedgwick said delaying the vote will put a further burden on teachers who would have to quickly adapt their lesson plans to fit a new hybrid model.
“I think we understand how difficult it is to prepare a classroom for a school year with just two weeks’ notice, and for this board to continue to put this decision off is to make hundreds of thousands of people wait for our decision every two weeks,” Sedgwick said.
Trujillo mentioned many teachers’ concerns about adjusting to a hybrid model, but ultimately recognized that nearly half of survey respondents want in-person learning.
Early voting for the Nov. 3 general election is underway in Pima County! Some county residents are so eager to cast their ballots that they were in line bright and early today before the County Recorder opened an early voting location at 8 a.m. at 240 N. Stone.Early birds wait before 8 a.m. for Early Voting downtown at 240 N. Stone. Vote in person. #FirstWeekVoters pic.twitter.com/IWcFNnkzMV
— Pima County Recorder (@Pima_Co_Record) October 7, 2020
If you want to cast your early ballot in person, you can find a list of early-voting sites here.
If you'd like to request an early ballot by mail, click here. The last day to request an early ballot by mail is Friday, Oct. 23.
Pima County had seen 26,052 of the state’s 222,538 confirmed cases.
With 20 new deaths today, a total of 5,733 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 629 deaths in Pima County, according to the Oct. 7 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases continues to decline from July peaks. ADHS reported that as of Oct. 6, 681 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state. While that number has creeped up by more than 100 since Sunday, it’s still far below the peak of 3,517 hospitalized COVID patients set on July 13.
A total of 728 people visited emergency rooms on Oct. 6 with COVID symptoms. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7.
A total of 147 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Oct. 6. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.
On a week-by-week basis in Pima County, the number of positive COVID tests peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,453 cases, according to an Oct. 5 report from the Pima County Health Department. With the return of UA students, local numbers ticked upward in September but have begun to decline again. For the week ending Sept. 5, a total of 867 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 12, 1,112 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 19, 1,222 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 26, 578 cases were reported; for the week ending Oct. 3, 397 cases were reported. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
Deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 54 in the week ending July 4 to 10 in the week ending Sept. 5, zero in the week ending Sept. 12, two in the week ending Sept. 19, two in the week ending Sept. 26 and 1 in the week ending Oct. 3. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
Hospitalization peaked the week ending July 18 with 234 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals. In the week ending Aug. 29, 37 COVID patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; in the week ending Sept. 5, 23 patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; in the week ending Sept. 12, 19 patients were admitted; in the week ending Sept. 19, 14 patients were admitted; and in the week ending Sept. 26, 11 people were admitted and in the week ending Oct. 3, 10 patients were admitted. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
TUSD delays return to in-person instruction
The Tucson Unified School District’s governing board approved a new hybrid learning model for returning to classes but delayed voting on when to implement it.
In a 4-1 vote, the board approved the new model but decided to delay voting on a return date until the next TUSD board meeting Oct. 27.
The district had previously planned on resuming a hybrid model of in-person classes with children attending classes on two days a week and working online at home three days a week on Monday, Oct. 19.
Tags: coronavirus , TUSD , in-person instruction , delay , case numbers , testing , covid-19 , Image
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
The healthcare advocacy organization Protect Our Care took a “virtual bus stop” in Arizona on Tuesday to advocate for protecting the Affordable Care Act and to bring awareness to Republican-led efforts to dismantle it.
The group usually tours the nation on a physical bus, but this year, they’re hosting virtual meetings with elected leaders and health care advocates throughout 16 states to discuss present dangers to Americans’ access to healthcare and how this is complicated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Democratic Rep. Tom O’Halleran kicked off the presentation of live speakers. He told a story about one of the first bills he tried to pass in Congress that addressed the coverage gap in Medicare drug plans. When he went to present his bill, the chairman of the rules committee set four large piles of paper on the front desk — the four healthcare plans the committee had already written since 2012.
Now, O’Halleran supports the Obama-era healthcare plan and believes “people really count on the ACA,” and that getting rid of it without a clear replacement could mean further digression in healthcare and put 300,000 Arizonans with pre-existing conditions at risk.
“These are costly issues that involve life or death situations for many people,” O’Halleran said. “This is not about moving America forward, but moving America backward. If you’re going to go after [the ACA], have a better plan, or at least have a plan. And they don’t have any of that.”
