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The Sunnyside Unified School District has made several administrative changes.

The moves, approved by the Governing Board during meetings May 29 and June 1, are:

• Steve Holmes is the new director of Language Acquisition and Development, which administers programs that help students learning English.

He also will oversee Project Graduation, a program aimed at keeping students from dropping out of school, and increasing graduation rates.

Project Graduation rewards students who do well in academics, attendance and extracurricular activity and have no out-of-school suspensions by giving them laptop computers.

Holmes will receive an annual salary of $86,000. He comes from Tucson Unified School District, where he served as chief academic officer and assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.

• Art Basurto is the new director of transportation after serving as interim director since November. Basurto will receive an annual salary of $76,000. He taught automotive technology at Sunnyside High School for 20 years and also worked in the district as a bus driver, custodian and mechanic.

• Elizabeth Arnot-Hopffer is the new principal of Los Ranchitos Elementary School. She'll receive an annual salary of $75,000.

• In a reorganization plan, the board also approved naming Bernie Cohn, principal of Liberty Elementary School and a Rodel Exemplary Principal for Pima County, as the district's school improvement coach/mentor for elementary principals.

Eneida Orci will serve as Liberty's interim principal. Orci was a prevention specialist for Liberty and a Rodel Exemplary Aspiring Principal.

• Howard Carlson, assistant superintendent for educational services, resigned to become superintendent of the Wickenburg Unified School District. His last day was June 4. Carlson's duties, which included overseeing human resources and information technologies, now will be handled by Anna Maiden. Maiden was promoted from administrator director of human resources to executive director of human resources and now reports directly to Superintendent Manuel L. Isquierdo.

• The district will replace Carlson's position with a chief financial officer position to oversee business and finance.

The position was created because of "ongoing challenges of budgeting and the need to seek new revenue sources and compete nationally for federal stimulus monies," said Monique Soria, a district spokeswoman.

Sunnyside Superintendent Manuel L. Isquierdo has been named president of the Arizona Hispanic School Administrators Association, an organization that promotes leadership, unity and mentorship for Hispanic educators and students.

Currently, more than 30 percent of public school students in the state are Hispanic.

Isquierdo also was selected to serve on the Rodel Charitable Foundation of Arizona's Advisory Board. The foundation was formed in 1999 to support public schools through a math initiative; teacher, principal and administrator initiatives; and a community scholars program.

The Marana Unified School District Governing Board hired Pamela Beine to serve as the new principal at Picture Rocks Intermediate School.

The board voted 3-0 on May 28 to hire Beine for the Picture Rocks post. Two board members were absent for the vote.

Beine will start July 1. Picture Rocks is at 5875 N. Sanders Road.

An online-only school is holding a Tucson open house to share information with parents and prospective students.

The school — iQ Academy Arizona — is run by the Lake Havasu Unified School District and calls itself the state's largest online school.

The school is enrolling now for the 2009-10 school year and will host an open house at the Radisson Suites Tucson, 6555 E. Speedway, on June 27 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Teachers and students from the academy will be available to answer questions. Visitors also will be able to see a demonstration of how the school operates and what a virtual classroom looks like.

You also can learn more at www.iqacademyaz.com or by calling 1-866-602-4729.

The Tucson Unified School District has opened a Twitter account.

Go to twitter.com/ tucsonunified to check it out.

The account had 334 followers as of Friday evening.