It takes dedicated and determined community leaders—parents, advocates, business members, educators—to create lasting change in our public schools.  Wade McLean, Andrew Morrill, and Irene Sanchez are true heroes.  

 This page features articles on some of the Public Education Heroes whose passion has lead to meaningful and sustainable change in our schools.

Wade McLean

You would think that after 34 years in public education,Wade McLean might want to take a break and just relax. But the former Marana Unified School District superintendent, who spearheaded lowering class size in a time when state funding was dwindling and districts were just trying to stay in the black, isn’t retreating from the education scene.

After retiring from Marana, where he started his education career as a teacher three decades earlier, the former Arizona Superintendent ofthe Year for Large Districts is running for state representative for District26.

He said he decided to run because he believes there has not been a strong enough advocate for education as the state Legislature has been making its decisions. He said he has been “extremely bothered by the lack of support given to education and especially by the lack of understanding of the impact their decisions have on the education of our children.”

McLean said he also isn’t fond of how the state – and federal – governments are encroaching into decisions that should be made locally by governing boards, parents, students, teachers and community members.

Empowerment of those stakeholder groups was a key to his success at Marana Unified, where he was superintendent for eight years.

As superintendent, he said, he had to send a message that student achievement was a top priority, and so was “creating a positive collaborative culture in which our employees, especially the teachers, understood that they were an important and essential aspect of the effort to improve student achievement.”

McLean said the lowering of class size was symbolic of these two efforts.

When class size was lowered, not only did the district celebrate and embrace it, even then-Gov. Jane Hull acknowledged it's success..

Not that it had been an easy process. A Class Size Reduction Committee was formed and budget money moved around to reduce class size – and increase teacher salaries. But McLean said it was worth it.

Lower class size meant teachers could spend less time on behavior management and more on teaching, he said. “Parents were ecstatic because this effort showed that their children were important to the district. And test scores began improving and we moved forward on several other creative and innovative efforts.”   One teacher said that the first year class sizes were reduced, she completed what had been a year's worth of lessons by January.

In the district there was a change from a combative to collaborative voice and leadership expectations became extremely important, hesaid. “There was an atmosphere created in which we started celebrating our own successes. The district set high expectations and met them because of a positive culture and an inclusive decision making process.”

These are all things McLean he wishes the State Legislature would do.

He also knows that “it is important to include a celebration of our excellent schools in addition to the negative self talk that occurs now… Although we need to deal with schools that are in need of improvement, we can’t dwell on the negative. … We have wonderful schools that are educating students every day. These schools are supported by the parents and community members and student successes are evident.”

McLean said “the Legislature seems to think that they have the answers to educational issues. I believe the solutions should lie in the hands of the local community.”

McLean’s expertise – which also includes being a teacher, a principal and a former president of the Arizona State Board of Education and the Arizona Department of Education’s state superintendent’s educational liaison – gives him an in-depth understanding of what we need to do to improve our schools.  He wants the Legislature to start dealing with schools in a positive way “and with an understanding that their decisions should include those that are impacted.”  

Arizona, he said, “must do everything possible to give our children the opportunities to prepare for successful adulthood.”

If that means another career for McLean, who currently is a member of the board of directors of WestEd, a non-profit educational research, development and service agency serving state Departments of Education and school districts across the nation, he says bring it on.

Irene Sanchez

Irene Sanchez has raised 14 children, two daughters, six grandchildren and six foster children all of whom have attended schools within the Tucson Unified School District. As a Patient Advocate for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, she has also been a long time advocate for her children and her community. Voices for Education sat down with Irene for a Q&A to find out how she stays involved in public education.

How did you first get involved with your children’s education?
When my daughters began school at Mission View Elementary there was a Parent and Children Education (PACE) program in place. Parents had to go to school with their children. We were taught how to play with and teach them.  I wasn’t working at the time and my own mother had always been involved, so I had a good role model.

Over time, how has your involvement changed?
I was involved and organizing when I was young without even realizing it. It’s no surprise that I got involved in the schools. Now I work fulltime so I’ve decided the most important things for me are my family and being involved where I can. I’m part of the Voices for Education Parent Leadership Institute for parents with children in Johnson, Lawrence and Hohokom schools. I am also a volunteer mentor with StrengthBuilding Partners.

How have you made a difference in the schools?
Helping teachers, helping schools get what they need, helping with fundraisers (and) helping to organize the parents so the children can get what they need.

What are you planning now with Voices for Education?
For my first action plan a group of parents with children at Lawrence helped organize a Parent Forum to help parents understand the AIMS tests and the effects that testing has on a school.  For my second action plan I’m focusing on special needs services in the district.  I’ve had so much experience trying to get my children the services they need and now I want to make that information available to other parents.

What has been your greatest challenge over the years?
I have had children at both ends of the spectrum-gifted and special needs-and making sure that special needs children get the services they need is a challenge.  We need to keep pushing, and we need patience. We also need to make sure that qualified teachers, not substitutes, are teaching them.

What is your advice to parents who are working to help make their schools better?
Stay focused on your issue, keep on going back to the children and remember what’s good for them.

ANDREW MORRILL

The new president of the Arizona Education Association has been a championof small class size since he was a high school teacher and could see thedifference it made.

“I reject the notion that teaching 18 students is the same as teaching 25,30, or 40,” said Morrill, who was a staunch advocate as Marana administrators,school board members, teachers, staff, parents and the community as a whole decidedthey were going to find ways to lower class sizes for their students severalyears ago.

“Peoplewho think (class size doesn’t make a difference) are ignoring research, commonsense, and the wisdom from the field,” he said.  “Ask anyone who has actually been in a classroom as aninstructor, aide, or administrator and she or he will tell you that the numberof students in a class is a significant part of the learning environmentestablished.” 

Morrill said Marana addressed class size because “we had the right leadersin key positions, and they were willing to take risks to do the rightthing. Class size, especially in the lower grades, makes a huge differencefor students and educators, and we in MUSD associated lower class sizeswith our commitment to improve education across the district.”

Theresults were surprising to some. “The first thing we saw was some disbelief bymany that we actually accomplished what we said we would do, Morrill said. “Ithink, understandably, people were used to tempering their expectations.

“Butbecause of the commitment by MUSD Superintendent Wade McLean; the entireGoverning Board, really; and teachers and staff across the district, we loweredclass numbers by as many as six students per class across some grade levels.”

Resultsof a two year study group led to the focus on grades K-3, but the districtcommitted other funds to expand that beyond the third grade. Morrill explained.“Teachers reported a noticeable difference inside their classrooms, more timefor individual student attention, and resulting gains in achievement.”

Morrill,who always has set high standards and “tried to create an atmosphere of safeintellectual risk-taking – a kind of laboratory where students would practicecritical thinking” in his classrooms, was much pleased.

“Freshmencame around and learned to expect more of themselves,” he said, and “seniorswho at the beginning of the year told me they would probably never go tocollege, were telling me with determination that they would be enrolling thenext year.”

Witheconomic pressures keeping many school districts from following suit, Morrillsees a need for state government to accept a role as well.

Educators,he said, have to tell their stories and “policymakers such as legislators andthe Governor have to be willing to listen – really listen, not just funneleverything they receive from the field into a political grinder.

“Weshould be improving public education for all students in Arizona and doing so withour classroom teachers and staffs, not around them,” Morrillsaid. “The professions in public education can evolve and become stronger, moreeffective. But educators require a system that is designed with success as thegoal. To be a leader means, in part, exploring one's role in buildingthat system.”

Morrillplans to continue to do just that in his new position.

The AEA, where Morrill had been vice-president for the last six years,represents 31,000 public school employees. Morrill taught English andjournalism for more than 16 years at Mountain View High School in MaranaUnified School District, where he said his classroom time was “rewarding beyondall measure.” At Marana, he also was president of the Marana EducationAssociation for two years.

 “Arizona has some of the highest classsizes in the nation; we have for years,” the educator said. “This issymptomatic of a failure of the state legislative leadership to addressArizona's continued revenue shortfall.

“Toomany legislators have chosen to see public education as a cost rather than aninvestment,” Morrill said. “In adopting this narrow view, they haveunderserved Arizona's students, families and economy.”

Morrillsaid class size “by itself is not the miracle that will correct everychallenge our schools face. Educators and parents need to insist that statepolicymakers overhaul the school funding system and address the structuraldeficit that robs students of the education they deserve.”

“Everystudent in Arizona deserves a great public school, available to them not on thebasis of their income, race, or religious views but because they are here, theyare children, and they are in our charge,” the new AEA president said. “Theydeserve to grow up ready for jobs that may not even exist right now. Theydeserve to unfold and unlock the best of themselves, and they deserve committedadults who want to help them find their voice and shape their destiny.

“Theydeserve to learn the skills – intellectual and pragmatic – that they will needto keep opening doors as long as they live,” he said. “They deserve to find anddevelop their talents to become rich resources to others, become ethicallycentered for the families and friends they'll one day have, and to chart theirpaths through a rapidly changing and unpredictable world.”

Allstudents are entitled to the best of what Arizona has to offer: resources,educators, health care, quality of life, and a future, he said.

But headded this sad commentary: “The generation in schools now is the first inArizona's history as a state that is likely to fall short of the educationalattainment of their parents.

“That isinexcusable,” he said. “Students today need to be prepared to thrive in aglobal economy as they shape their individual destiny. It is unethical tounder invest in public education as we are doing in Arizona now. We adults havea responsibility to elect legislators and a Governor who see the power of investingin public education as an ethical imperative on behalf of our students.”