InMaricopa
MUSD governing Board member Jim Jordan cast the lone dissenting vote in the board s decision to spend $1.6 million on a new K-12 science curriculum. Jordan said he voted no for philosophical reasons. Photo by Jay Taylor.
The Maricopa Unified School District governing board voted 4-1 to approve the adoption of a new K-12 science curriculum at its meeting Wednesday night, replacing the existing, 14-year-old version. Jim Jordan was the lone dissenting vote.
The new curriculum, with a price tag of $1,593,793, will be in place for six years. It is part of an adoption cycle that began with a new math curriculum for the 2017-18 school year followed by English Language Arts in 2018. MUSD added student laptops for the 2020-21 school year, and the final adoption in the cycle will be social studies.
InMaricopa
The Maricopa Unified School District is getting ready to invest in a new science curriculum.
The district is evaluating potential vendors to provide both curriculum and textbooks to all the district’s K-12 schools at a cost of about $1.7 million.
According to the district, the Teaching and Learning department is responsible for the adoption process, which starts with teachers voting on the curriculum, followed by Governing Board approval, purchase of the materials and delivery, which will come in time for the start of the 2021-22 school year.
Student achievement data will be reviewed each semester using benchmark data and yearly using state assessment data.
MUSD board votes, 2-1, to hire new MHS athletic director
Ben Owens, president of the Maricopa Unified School District Governing Board, listens at Wednesday night s meeting. Photo by Jay Taylor
The hiring of a new athletic director/vice principal at Maricopa High School took an unexpected turn Wednesday night.
Christopher Driving Hawk’s hiring was on the consent agenda at the meeting of the Maricopa Unified School District Governing Board, with approval thought to be a formality.
But president Ben Owens pulled the matter off the consent agenda for discussion and then introduced a motion to withhold approval.
“I wanted to pull this off because I know this was a very contentious item and we did receive several emails about this,” Owens said. “I don’t want this to come across to our administration as ‘I don’t trust you’ but I can’t support this position.”
DECATUR â Employees at the Archer Daniels Midland Co. BioProducts plant in Decatur were evacuated Sunday afternoon after an anhydrous ammonia leak was detected.
Firefighters with the Decatur Fire Department responded to the scene at 2:50 p.m. to help deal with the leak, and ADM said later Sunday there had been no injuries.
At 4:45 p.m. ADM released an emailed statement after being contacted for comment by the Herald & Review. This afternoon employees detected an ammonia leak at ADM s BioProducts facility in Decatur, the statement said. The facility was evacuated while authorities assisted in detecting and fixing the leak. No one was injured. We are investigating the cause and working to resume operations. Â
An emergency call that happily proved to be a false alarm triggered a dramatic fire department rappelling operation Sunday morning over the frozen waters of Lake Decatur.