Ireland Plan in Rivendell by Richmond American, Tucson, AZ 85730

Principal Loya can be a mean person with little regard for the feelings of others, this includes his staff. He is not the ideal role model for elementary school age children. A principal for this age group should encompass a warm friendly demeanor and motivate others with positive vibes. He is all about fear and bullying. During a conference, he was threatening to our child who was reluctant to come to school. As parents, my husband and I were shocked, appalled and angry at his lack of problem solving abilities with a small child. The logical way to handle this situation would be to comfort the child and explore the child's feelings and address the fears; not increase them. Offer positive incentives such as lunch with principal, or a warm fuzzy. We withdrew our child that day. An opportunity to educate and build a positive relationship was wasted. His ability to own up to his failure by apologizing to our child was also wasted. He could have demonstrated that mistakes will happen but we can take responsibility for our actions and make it right. As the clincher to the meeting , he let us all know, he hates his job and still has to come every day.

Sadly, this school put my child with special needs in danger and then completely abandoned her. This was our home district and we were happy to get my children into what we thought was a kind and inclusive school community. The problem at Miles wasn't the teachers, they are caring and creative, the problem is poor resources and ineffective and inflexible administration. The district will try to get out of paying anything they can for students with special needs. I had a letter documenting my child's need for an aide from her developmental pediatrician and they had the data from the school showing she clearly needed 1:1 support but they still would not provide it due to the cost. When my 5 year old got away from her teacher who was in charge of a whole kindergarten class and ran into a busy street they finally recognized that she needed some aide support. That was several months into the year when she had already been endangered by their reckless policies. Then when school went to online only in March 2020 and my 6 year old child with special needs could not learn that way, admin just gave up and refused to educate her. They would not bring her in for tutoring or any services, nothing, even though her special ed teacher recognized that she could not learn online and wanted to teach her in person and felt she could do it safely, admin refused and completely abandoned her. The school has remained shuttered for an entire year now, 12 months, to students who desperately needed in person education, what a travesty, I feel terribly for any students stuck in TUSD who needed in person education and have list out on so much. I am so incredibly thankful we got our kids into CFSD, they are doing an excellent job educating all children safely even during a challenging year and are a much more welcoming and inclusive community!