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 specialistsβ jobs, for 54 math and reading interventionists and 46 βresponse to interventionβ 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 nightβs meeting, would eliminate 39 positions, leaving $3.25 million to be rerouted to sustainably fund the learning recovery specialists.
βThis is not a recommended path that the administration would advise the board (to take),β TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said of the staffing cuts. βThis is where a lot of the work to support our students and families is happening.β
βIn 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,β Trujillo said.
However, TUSD has a formula for administrative staff-to-student ratios.
For example, TUSDβs 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.
βSpreading people thinβ
Several opponents of cutting assistant principals took to the podium Tuesday.
βSeven years ago, TUSD did exactly what theyβre discussing now,β said Valencia Middle School Principal Stacey Gist. βSchools were constantly labeled Dβs and Fβs 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.β
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, βWe 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.β
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 boardβs Jan. 30 meeting. The EDI department oversees support for unhoused students and LGBTQ students, as well as the multicultural curriculum.
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 districtβs learning recovery specialist positions disappear also is unlikely.
βTo 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,β 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 TUSDβs budget plot thickens, as good news concerning the districtβs poverty rate brings with it the possibility of reduced federal funding under Title I.
βWeβre just making projections at this point,β said TUSD grants and federal funds director Jon Lansa. βThose are things that Iβm having to take into account when setting budgets for schools β¦ so that weβre not pulling money back from schools next year. That would be worst case scenario. Weβre trying to avoid that situation.β
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 schoolβs poverty rate. In fiscal year 2025, it is projected 85 of TUSDβs schools will be Title I schools. The federal dollars back efforts to support student achievement in high-poverty schools. In TUSDβs case, that includes, but is not limited to, districtwide summer school, preschool and family engagement efforts.
The districtβs 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 TUSDβs poverty rate will drop by 2025, Lansa said.
βFor the last couple years, it was going up. Now weβre seeing this drop and thatβs what weβre having to plan for.β
Tucson Unified isnβt alone, he said. Many Pima County schoolsβ 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 TUSDβs Title I allocations go to private schools, Lansa explained.
Thatβs decided by the number of students from TUSDβs coverage area attending private schools. βWeβre mandated that (Title I) money follows them,β he said.
βTo me, touching Title I funds is sort of β¦ I donβt know if βsacrilegiousβ is the right word, but itβs hurtful,β Governing Board President Natalie Luna Rose said. βIβm hoping that and praying that perhaps the allocations that you get in March will look different.β