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.

ANDREW MORRILL

The new president of the Arizona Education Association has been a champion of small class size since he was a high school teacher and could see the difference 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 decided they were going to find ways to lower class sizes for their students severalyears ago.

“People who 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 an instructor, aide, or administrator and she or he will tell you that the numberof students in a class is a significant part of the learning environment established.” 

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

The results were surprising to some. “The first thing we saw was some disbelief by many that we actually accomplished what we said we would do, Morrill said. “I think, understandably, people were used to tempering their expectations.

“But because of the commitment by MUSD Superintendent Wade McLean; the entire Governing Board, really; and teachers and staff across the district, we lowered class numbers by as many as six students per class across some grade levels.”

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

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

“Freshmen came around and learned to expect more of themselves,” he said, and “seniors who 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.”

With economic pressures keeping many school districts from following suit, Morrill sees a need for state government to accept a role as well.

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

“We should be improving public education for all students in Arizona and doing so with our classroom teachers and staffs, not around them,” Morrillsaid. “The professions in public education can evolve and become stronger, more effective. But educators require a system that is designed with success as the goal. To be a leader means, in part, exploring one's role in building that system.”

Morrill plans 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 and journalism for more than 16 years at Mountain View High School in Marana Unified School District, where he said his classroom time was “rewarding beyond all measure.” At Marana, he also was president of the Marana Education Association for two years.

 “Arizona has some of the highest class sizes in the nation; we have for years,” the educator said. “This is symptomatic of a failure of the state legislative leadership to address Arizona's continued revenue shortfall.

“Too many legislators have chosen to see public education as a cost rather than an investment,” Morrill said. “In adopting this narrow view, they have underserved Arizona's students, families and economy.”

Morrill said class size “by itself is not the miracle that will correct every challenge our schools face. Educators and parents need to insist that state policymakers overhaul the school funding system and address the structural deficit that robs students of the education they deserve.”

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

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

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

But he added this sad commentary: “The generation in schools now is the first in Arizona's history as a state that is likely to fall short of the educational attainment of their parents.

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

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.  He has been the head of the White River Unified School District on the Apace Reservation. he took the job when school budgets were being cut by the Arizona State Legislature.

After retiring from Marana, where he started his education career as a teacher three decades earlier, the former Arizona Superintendent of the Year for Large Districts missed working to improve schools.

He believes there have not been a strong enough advocates 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.