Celania-Fagen

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Elizabeth Celania-Fagen's 1,400-mile journey from Des Moines, Iowa, to Tucson began with an Internet ad.

Thirteen years into her career as an educator, Celania-Fagen first considered becoming superintendent of Tucson's largest school district earlier this winter, when she discovered a posting on the Web site of the American Association of School Administrators.

The ambitious administrator, who last summer was named associate superintendent of the 32,000-student Des Moines Public Schools, already was familiar with Arizona through visits with her father, a Phoenix resident, and her mother, who spends winters in Tucson.

She was intrigued — and her openness, ambition and vision earned her the job.

When she arrives in summer to begin her tenure as TUSD's new superintendent, Celania-Fagen will head a district nearly twice the size of her current district.

She'll inherit a Governing Board split in its vision for TUSD and a district in upheaval with potential school closures, a projected deficit of $20 million for her inaugural school year, and falling student enrollment.

But the issues are familiar, Celania-Fagen said from her office in Des Moines, and she's confident in her solutions to the challenges before her.

"I am fairly optimistic and often approach things from the 'why not?' perspective," she said.

When she was interviewed by the TUSD Governing Board in February, along with the three other candidates, she impressed board member Adelita Grijalva. The 34-year-old associate superintendent and mother of a toddler was passionate, energetic and comfortable, Grijalva said.

"She was very matter-of-fact and yet very relaxed, and she was the same at the public forum," Grijalva said.

The Governing Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to offer Celania-Fagen the job, yet even those who voted against her praised her education background and experience.

TUSD faces several pressing issues: the decades-old federal desegregation order, which district officials hope will end soon, school closures, a budget deficit, new mandates for English-language learners and cuts to library and counseling staffers. When asked about the issues, Celania-Fagen draws on her experience as administrator in Des Moines.

Librarian and counselor staff cuts were made by Des Moines Public Schools a few years before her arrival, the result of lowered education funding from the state, she said.

Instead of making cuts from district headquarters, Celania-Fagen said, schools were given the autonomy to cut full-time employees as they saw fit, similar to the current proposal in TUSD to save funds by cutting librarians and counselors.

Problems occurred, she said, when the district recouped the money and restored positions. Equity issues arose, as some schools received more staff members, but those that didn't cut to begin with didn't receive new funds.

"In hindsight, I think it needs to be a collaborative process," she said, explaining that there must be an understanding of how today's cuts affect tomorrow's school district.

Celania-Fagen also is familiar with the complexities of federal orders meant to ensure ethnic balance. A desegregation plan was in place when she arrived at Des Moines Public Schools in 2005, she said. But that changed with last summer's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that race no longer could be an enrollment factor in public schools.

Community forums, surveys and public input were begun to create a vision of the school district under the new federal rule, she said.

Like Tucson, her district has a diverse population, with 62 percent of students living below the poverty level, nearly 40 percent minority enrollment and about 40 languages spoken in schools.

Like Tucson, Des Moines faces the loss of students from the city center, Celania-Fagen said. The district's response was to implement magnet programs for high school students and create unique neighborhood schools at the middle and elementary school levels.

The approach to student retention is to make TUSD a district of choice, she said.

"All across the nation, parents drive their students 20 minutes or more because they think that's the best option for their children," she said.

Since the 1997-98 school year, TUSD has lost more than 3,500 students, enrollment figures show. TUSD officials project a loss of 1,200 more students by the next school year.

Personable and solution-minded, in her corner office in downtown Des Moines earlier this week, Celania-Fagen visited with a district employee, discussing problems that students face. She said she believes that every problem has a solution.

Celania-Fagen is friendly and open, and she said she plans to run TUSD in the same manner. She stressed the importance of keeping the communication lines open with district residents.

Some of that openness could be attributed to where she grew up — where people wave to strangers as they drive down main street, the outskirts of town or even on a country road.

She graduated in 1992 from Albia Community High School. The south-central Iowa community of 3,700 has a deep-seated blue-collar work ethic. The farming region faces daily economic challenges, but residents find ways to make ends meet.

The other reason for her openness is simply her take on her profession. She said she believes it's difficult to be an effective educator without being a strong communicator.

She comes from a family of educators. Her mother, Kay, was her seventh-grade English teacher and later became a high school principal. The two took administrator classes together. Her stepfather, Graham Quinn, retired as a district superintendent.

Those who have worked alongside Celania-Fagen agree that she is determined.

When she became associate principal at Valley High School in West Des Moines in 2002, students were able to take only a handful of dual-enrollment community college courses.

She worked closely with Des Moines Area Community College to expand that program to more than 30 courses before leaving in June 2005 to join Des Moines Public Schools.

"I have high praise for her," said Vicky Poole, Valley High School principal. "Elizabeth is very intuitive. She does the research to solve the problem and isn't afraid to do the necessary work to solve the problem. She brings a lot to the table."

That includes reaching out to the teachers union, said Steve Courter, president of the Tucson Education Association, which represents teachers and other school staff members.

He said his counterpart in the Des Moines Education Association was sad to see her go.

"The (union) president there said when she is going to make a decision, she brings in everyone who will be affected by that decision," Courter said.

Though the terms of her contract have yet to be negotiated, Celania-Fagen said she would like to be in Tucson for at least five years, if not 10.

"I'm not very interested in being a superintendent that goes place to place," she said. "I'm interested in building a relationship with the community and the schools."

There's another reason, she added.

She'd like a stable environment for Meredith, her 2 1/2-year-old daughter.