Is Importing A Small-City Utah Educator Gonna Fix Big-City Mesa Arizona Public Schools??

11 March 2018

Is Importing A Small-City Utah Educator Gonna Fix Big-City Mesa Arizona Public Schools??

Time will tell.
30 years-of-time has not been so kind for either the nationwide bad reputation on the quality and performance of Arizona public schools frequently rated F for Failure at the bottom of rankings for all the States or the qualifications, teaching standards and salaries paid to Arizona educators - ranking #48 for elementary teachers and #49 for high schools.
Report cards on failures runs through Pre-K, K-12 and higher education: the entire system, with few bright spots, has failed abysmally across the board for more than three decades. Throwing more money at a problem won't fix it. Busting-up the education bureaucracy can work starting with a "Clean -Up".

In the case of the current Mesa Superintendent of Public Schools, Michael Cowan, during allegations of financial improprieties, tendered his resignation effective in June at the end of this school year, stating he got "a calling" to serve on an LDS mission to an undetermined location - a convenient and timely rescue mission out of a potentially tinged and sticky situation. That action effectively got him out-of-the-picture for more scrutiny to leave an empty slot at the top of the largest school district in Arizona - here in Mesa with a population of 485,000+ growing fast in the 21st Century.
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Here's an infographic inserted here from http://www.proximityone.com/lgsd1.htm that clearly shows how big the MUSD is - it's the biggest public school district in the entire State of Arizona - and note the obvious economic disparities within the same boundaries

There are now different dynamic emerging and diversified demographics than those in the 19th Century when 'Pioneers' from Utah established the Mesa education system in Mormon meeting-houses and schools. The make-up of the public school administrations hasn't changed much since then with mixed results on performance.
Cowan's resignation opened the way to go in a different direction to shake-off those early entrenched roots by hiring someone from "outside the chain-of-command" with a track-record of proven success in a similar-sized city - that's a basic common-sense starting point to find a solution.

Instead, the MUSD Board of Directors has gone ahead to name someone who was Superintendent of the public schools in a small city in Utah with a population of less than 8,000: Ember Conley, Park City UT.
Negotiations on the contract are in-the-works. Let's first ask, as any reasonable person might, why is there already such a preponderous presence here in Mesa governance of individuals and connections to Utah?

The Law of Averages alone would tell us that we can expect to see a wider range of qualified talent from more than one geographic area. Perhaps Arizona's bad reputation scared-off potential candidates from applying, skewering and limiting the field of candidates for consideration.
Nonetheless, according to information from sources, the selected candidate from Utah was the best-qualified from those who chose to apply for the job.
It's a tough job to take on an entire educational system here in Mesa and -in the State of Arizona - that has failed to educate students for more than 30 years to achievement basic proficiency outcomes and training for skilled jobs in the workforce.
Here's the announcement from March 07, 2018
Mesa school board to offer Utah educator Ember Conley superintendent position

Lily Altavena, The Republic | azcentral.com Published 9:30 p.m. MT March 6, 2018 | Updated 4:16 p.m. MT March 7, 2018
Mesa's school board may have just chosen the next leader of the biggest school district in Arizona.

At the tail end of its search for a superintendent, Mesa Public Schools' board voted unanimously Tuesday to negotiate a contract with Ember Conley, superintendent at a school district in Utah.

Conley told The Arizona Republic Wednesday that she accepted the offer to negotiate and is sure she and the board "will come to an agreement."

"I’m beyond excited," she said. "We’re thrilled and humbled to have this opportunity to come back to Arizona."

She said Mesa feels particularly unique to her in that despite the district's size, it has the "hometown feel and the support for public education."

The school board concluded its meeting around 8:45 p.m. on Tuesday evening, after a marathon day of interviews with the three finalists for the job, a district spokeswoman confirmed. If contract negotiations are successful, Conley would replace outgoing superintendent Michael Cowan. . .

> She is a graduate of Arizona State University, with a Doctor of Education from Argosy University in Phoenix, according to MPS. She was once interim superintendent of the Maricopa Unified School District, according to her LinkedIn page.

> Conley is at the helm of the Park City School District in Utah, but announced she would leave in December, reported ParkRecord.com.

Conley did not reveal why she was leaving Park City but admitted to the news site that some negative comments from community members weighed on her.

Link to entire article > https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa-education/
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Mesa, AZ

Demographic Data

Source: https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/az/mesa/demographics

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Dr. Ember Conley - Superintendent - Park City School District | LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ember-conley-a9b27a16

Park City, Utah - ‎Superintendent - ‎Park City School District

Dr. Ember Conley has served Park City School District as Superintendent for the last five years and is a former middle school math teacher, high school principal, elementary principal, assessment director, and deputy superintendent overseeing safety, federal programs, secondary curriculum, and principal mentoring.