TUSD considers cutting assistant principal jobs

Tucson Unified School District officials are hustling to find answers to their funding puzzle as COVID relief ends and Title I cuts loom.

One possible solution to the pandemic funding loss is a package of cuts in administrative staff, namely assistant principals, office assistants and administrative secretaries.

Also on the table because of the separate reduction in Title I money the district might face: A 15% budget cut to all TUSD schools and departments.

The last round of federal COVID relief funding, ESSER III, expires Sept. 30. The district used $3.6 million of its $172.9 million award to pay for pandemic-spurred learning recovery specialists.

Saving those specialists’ jobs, for 54 math and reading interventionists and 46 “response to intervention” professionals, has become a priority. TUSD data show a correlation between improved student performance and presence of the specialists.

The possible cuts to administrative staff, presented to the Governing Board at Tuesday night’s meeting, would eliminate 39 positions, leaving $3.25 million to be rerouted to sustainably fund the learning recovery specialists.

“This is not a recommended path that the administration would advise the board (to take),” TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said of the staffing cuts. “This is where a lot of the work to support our students and families is happening.”

“In times of budget reductions, we begin with positions, programs and opportunities furthest away from the classroom, furthest away from the school will always be our true north,” Trujillo said.

However, TUSD has a formula for administrative staff-to-student ratios.

For example, TUSD’s ideal students-to-assistant-principal formula is 600:1. Currently, that would be 26 full-time equivalent assistant principals.

Yet, the district has 54 FTE assistant principals on the roster.

“Spreading people thin”

Several opponents of cutting assistant principals took to the podium Tuesday.

“Seven years ago, TUSD did exactly what they’re discussing now,” said Valencia Middle School Principal Stacey Gist. “Schools were constantly labeled D’s and F’s and school safety was a huge concern. The board can look at discipline data, academic data and building administrator turnover. Main (assistant principal) priorities are supporting teachers and school safety daily.”

Gist is also president of Educational Leaders Incorporated, an employee group representing principals, assistant principals, school psychologists and research project managers.

Luke Skiba, a credit recovery teacher at Tucson High Magnet School, said, “We would be spreading more people thin and contribute to a lack of quality within our schools. People who do not directly work in schools daily should be considered for budget cuts over the already overworked school employees on our campuses.”

Other plan abandoned

Still, the public outcry for saving these administrative positions paled in comparison to the first solution TUSD considered, and abandoned, for its problem as COVID funding ends: Eliminating the Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness (EDI) Department and reallocating its funding source, desegregation funds.

That proposal drew a standing room-only crowd of EDI supporters at the board’s Jan. 30 meeting. The EDI department oversees support for unhoused students and LGBTQ students, as well as the multicultural curriculum.

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TUSD finance chief Ricky Hernandez told the Arizona Daily Star the plan to eliminate the diversity department is off the table after that meeting.

Indications are that letting the district’s learning recovery specialist positions disappear also is unlikely.

“To keep these teachers is very important to our district, to our students, who will continue on year after year learning, graduating and just being so proud to come to school and to be able to read with their peers,” said Governing Board member Jennifer Eckstrom.

Cuts to assistant principal, office assistant and administrative secretary jobs are still possible, but district leaders are working on other options, Hernandez said.

15% budget cut?

And TUSD’s budget plot thickens, as good news concerning the district’s poverty rate brings with it the possibility of reduced federal funding under Title I.

“We’re just making projections at this point,” said TUSD grants and federal funds director Jon Lansa. “Those are things that I’m having to take into account when setting budgets for schools … so that we’re not pulling money back from schools next year. That would be worst case scenario. We’re trying to avoid that situation.”

Lansa presented a few options Tuesday to make up for potentially lost Title I funds in FY2025. Those include a 15% budget cut to all TUSD schools and departments.

Title I funds are based on a school’s poverty rate. In fiscal year 2025, it is projected 85 of TUSD’s schools will be Title I schools. The federal dollars back efforts to support student achievement in high-poverty schools. In TUSD’s case, that includes, but is not limited to, districtwide summer school, preschool and family engagement efforts.

The district’s poverty rate currently stands at 19% and it receives $24.3 million in Title I funding.

Title I distribution is calculated based on school-aged individuals regardless of their school enrollment, which means students enrolled in charter, private and other public school alternatives are included in the equation.

Indications are TUSD’s poverty rate will drop by 2025, Lansa said.

“For the last couple years, it was going up. Now we’re seeing this drop and that’s what we’re having to plan for.”

Tucson Unified isn’t alone, he said. Many Pima County schools’ poverty rates are projected to improve, meaning the schools will likely lose some Title I support.

Overall student numbers also play a role. That population is also expected to decrease.

Additionally, about $890,000 of TUSD’s Title I allocations go to private schools, Lansa explained.

That’s decided by the number of students from TUSD’s coverage area attending private schools. “We’re mandated that (Title I) money follows them,” he said.

“To me, touching Title I funds is sort of … I don’t know if ‘sacrilegious’ is the right word, but it’s hurtful,” Governing Board President Natalie Luna Rose said. “I’m hoping that and praying that perhaps the allocations that you get in March will look different.”