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Tempe Union board hears plan to reclassify Tempe Union Online as district program under state instructional time model
Summary
District staff proposed reclassifying Tempe Union Online from a separate school to a district program under Arizona’s instructional time model; the change would alter state reporting and testing logistics but not students’ instructional experience. The board will take a formal vote at its next meeting.
Dr. Lehi, director of teaching and learning for the Tempe Union High School District, told the governing board that staff plan to reclassify Tempe Union Online from a standalone school into a district program and add it to the district’s instructional time model.
“This will not change instruction for students,” Dr. Lehi said, explaining the administrative purpose of the change. He described House Bill 2862 — enacted in 2022 — as the statutory vehicle that authorizes districts to adopt instructional time models that allow flexibility in how and when instructional minutes are delivered.
The proposal would keep the program’s current mix of independent online learning and scheduled synchronous interactions, but it would change how the district reports attendance and where students are listed for state assessment. Under the plan, daily attendance for full‑time online students would be recorded by logging into the district’s learning platform. Full‑time online students would be associated with a “home” school for state testing: students living in the district would be linked to their resident homeschool; out‑of‑boundary students would be assigned to the closest home school to their address, Dr. Lehi said.
Why it matters: the reclassification affects compliance and reporting to the Arizona Department of Education rather than instructional practice. Dr. Lehi said the state currently treats Tempe Union Online as a separate school with its own entity ID; staff want to close that entity ID and manage TUO as a program to align operations and reporting.
Board members asked operational questions but raised no objections. Board member Hodge asked whether students would retain an associated homeschool and how out‑of‑district students would be handled. Dr. Lehi replied that students would be associated with their homeschool and would take state tests at that homeschool; out‑of‑district students would be paired with the nearest homeschool by address. Board member Gutierrez Miller asked whether families had been consulted and how many students this would affect; Dr. Lehi said the change would apply only to full‑time online students and estimated the group at roughly 150–200 students.
The board was presented with this information as the first of the two required public presentations. Dr. Lehi told the board that state rules require the district to present the instructional time model at two meetings before submitting the final ITM proposal to the Arizona Department of Education.
No vote was taken on the reclassification at the meeting. Dr. Lehi said staff will return at the next regular board meeting with a resolution for board action and the completed ITM template to file with the state.
What’s next: the governing board will consider a formal motion and vote at its next meeting after the second public presentation and staff submission of the ITM materials to the district for approval.
