Before becoming Pima Community College’s new provost and executive vice chancellor this week, Ian Roark was a music teacher who later taught social studies — a winding path that shaped his vision for education.
Roark has been at Pima for almost 11 years.
We caught up with him just after his official appointment. The 47-year-old is married to a public school teacher and has two children, one at Pima and the other at Arizona State University.
“I’m a public educator and we believe in the power and dignity of public education,” he said.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
How did you start in education? “My very first job was teaching music at a junior high school in San Angelo, Texas and this was the high school in the community that had the highest concentration of students below the poverty line. From that moment on, I was just dedicated and hooked to the idea that the work that we were doing in our classrooms as teachers was changing the lives of these students in ways that just really didn’t understand before I was a teacher.”
What do you do when you’re not working? “I have a piano and a full drum kit. Music is essential to who I am. I read and write my own music, not for any publication but just for the enjoyment of close family and friends. I play the piano. I drum. And between the months of October and May, I try to hike — short or long — at least once every weekend.”
You were a social studies teacher at a career and technical education high school and you said your path here was not linear. This new position integrates academic affairs and workforce development, can you talk about why that’s important? “I think that (background) really grounded me in this philosophy that I still have today, which is that this binary distinction that we have made or established between academics and workforce development really is something that we unnecessarily created and if we stick to that paradigm where it’s an either/or situation, we are really not allowing all of the learners that we serve to have the full panorama of opportunities and educational training that are available to them, to really help them and their households with family-sustaining wages and moving up in their careers and giving back to their community.”
What would people be surprised to know about you? “I’m not as serious as I may seem. I love comedies, I love movies, spoof movies. A go-to for me and my wife is ‘A Fish Called Wanda.’ ”
Read the whiteboard
📌 The most far-reaching education story of the week is the federal budget deadline — and the proposed $12 billion cut to education — which is to be passed by midnight on Sept. 30. Southern Arizona school districts are set to lose millions. The House of Representatives version of the budget bill has a 15% cut in education spending, including nearly $5 billion in Title I funds at schools with low-income students. (That’s 87 of the 88 schools in the Tucson Unified School District, for example.) The Senate version of the bill did not cut K-12 funding. Check out how much your district could lose.
📌 Flowing Wells High School teacher Caitlin Reynolds is a finalist for Arizona Teacher of the Year. Reynolds teaches three levels of AgriScience courses and two levels of AgriScience welding. The Teacher of the Year will be announced Oct. 18.
📌 The new FAFSA form got a makeover. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid goes live Oct. 1 and advocates say it will now be more straightforward and easier to fill out. The FAFSA form is used to qualify for financial aid for college-bound students.
📌 The University of Arizona’s fall census says Arizona residents make up 62.5% of the freshman class. Total enrollment is 54,384 this semester, including 43,294 undergraduates and 11,090 graduate students. The first-year class has returned to “traditional enrollment levels” the UA says, with 7,506 students after record cohorts in 2022 and 2024.
Community bulletin board
📱 TUSD’s new cell phone rules: On top of the state law that’s guiding cell phone policies this school year, TUSD revised theirs.
💲Get help to pay fees: Support for your family in paying for extracurricular activities is available from the Educational Enrichment Foundation.
🧪 Vote on a SARSEF character: Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair will add to its online characters so students see themselves represented virtually. Vote to add a new scientist to join Sidney the Scientist, Eddie the Engineer, Tyler the Technologist, and Natalia the Naturalist.
📣 Ask us: Election season is upon us and we answer your questions regarding the bond and override questions for voters in TUSD, Flowing Wells and Sunnyside districts.
🏈 Arizona State University will start using AI facial recognition for admittance to football games starting next month. Following the lead of the University of Florida, the Sun Devils say they want more ticketing efficiency.
🏫 Insider info on Arizona’s education system: Check out the future of Arizona education in a town hall in a series of videos here. The forum features more than a dozen Arizonans who lead the way in education from early childhood and K-12 and post-secondary education to big-picture thinkers discussing the way forward.
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