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Counselor

When the superintendent's office at Tucson Unified School District headquarters officially becomes hers on Tuesday, Elizabeth Celania-Fagen will have a to-do list a mile long.

At the risk of being presumptuous, we're offering our thoughts on a few umbrella items we believe should be on her list. Running throughout is the theme of necessary repair, restoration and relationships.

This seems like a no-duh kind of recommendation, but it's so important we can't leave it out. Celania-Fagen must build confidence with TUSD employees and parents. She will benefit from a honeymoon period for at least a short time, but how her relationships fare once her newness wears off will set the tone for her service as superintendent.

This is a hopeful yet precarious time for Celania-Fagen. Because she is new to Tucson, she brings none of the baggage or connections that the two prior superintendents did. But because she's a relatively unknown quantity to most in TUSD, she carries the likely unrealistic expectations of those within the district who are discouraged, angry or feeling downtrodden. And there are many people who fit that description.

Employees talk about ubiquitous low morale in the district — although we frankly can't remember a time when morale in TUSD was good — and Celania-Fagen must meet this head on by speaking not only with the leadership of the different employee and parent organizations but by going to schools, meetings and talking with as many employees and parents as possible in informal settings.

Celania-Fagen needs to get to know her people and they need to get to know her. We've said it before: Tough decisions go over vastly better when the people making hard changes trust in their leaders' ability to make calls that ask for sacrifice but have real benefit and accomplish shared goals.

On the employees' and parents' side of the relationship, they need to step back and let Celania-Fagen get her bearings and do her job. The hard part for them is to not be terribly disappointed when she doesn't wave a magic wand and make changes materialize — she still has to deal with the same realities of inadequate public school funding with which the last administration struggled.

Getting a handle on the budget is a gargantuan task but it must be done. Celania-Fagen must be able to present to the public a budget in easy-to-understand layman's terms so we all can see how much money the district has to operate, where shortfalls are and what steps can be taken to operate the district in a fiscally responsible manner.

Celania-Fagen has the benefit of Beatriz Rendon, who is relatively new to her position as CEO of the district. Rendon has brought a keen eye to TUSD finances. While her findings and recommendations to achieve financial stability haven't proved popular politically, that is not a reflection on their validity or necessity.

For so long, TUSD administrations have raised alarms about budget shortfalls, but when it came down to the wire, money was found through accounting, using contingency funds or increasing the desegregation budget — a move that is no longer available. The last-minute maneuvering has left a legacy of "this-will-never-really-happen" feelings that make it all the more difficult to make changes.

Celania-Fagen must act swiftly on the budget so she can restore the public's confidence in TUSD.

The constant refrain from critics of TUSD is that the district could save zillions by simply firing everyone in central administration. Of course, this wouldn't actually work. A district as large as TUSD — with more than 100 schools, plus special programs — needs people to run the operational end.

But Celania-Fagen must examine the administrative structure and look for ways to save. Because she's not tied to the way things have always been done, she can look at things fresh and, no doubt, find places where two or more people are doing work that could be done by one.

Celania-Fagen must also make sure that the public knows about these changes. She must combat the pervasive perception that highly paid TUSD administrators take care of their own and budget cuts only affect underpaid teachers, blue-collar workers and kids. Everyone must share the pain in these lean times.

This is a tricky one.

Celania-Fagen is coming into her job on a 3-2 board vote that made her the superintendent. And she's coming into a job where the board has had strained relationships with at least the past two superintendents — everything starts off swell and then, as disagreements crop up, the partnership sours and life is more difficult for everyone in TUSD.

We implore the board members to respect their role as the entity that sets the big picture goals and Celania-Fagen's role as the person who is supposed to get it done.

She must set the tone early and make it clear that while she answers to the board directly, in truth she answers to the people of TUSD and must do her job for the benefit of the district with more than the wishes of individual board members in mind.

That's a polite way of telling the board members to chill and let the woman do her job.

A federal court ruling gives Celania-Fagen four months to come up with a plan for how the district will operate once the long-standing desegregation order is over. She must create this plan in partnership with the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, representatives of African-American and Hispanic students.

This process has serious potential political pitfalls if it's allowed to devolve into everyone fighting for their programs, their employees and what they think is most important. Celania-Fagen must keep the plan focused on improving education for all students.