TUSD to host public forum on shifting funds to prevent job cuts

After a TUSD presentation Feb. 13 on how to save certain jobs when pandemic-relief funding runs out, members of the public insisted the governing board offer a public forum.

The district has responded. Wednesday evening, March 20, Tucson Unified School District will host a forum to make the case for saving interventionist positions now paid for with COVID relief money.

Officials will first discuss the impact the learning recovery specialists have had on student performance since the pandemic. The positions in question are 54 math and reading interventionists and 46 “response to intervention” professionals. Studies conducted by TUSD show positive response from lower-proficiency students to the extra learning help.

The learning-recovery positions used $3.6 million of TUSD’s ESSER III federal COVID relief money. That round of funding expires Sept. 30, leaving the district searching for a way to shift funds to preserve these positions.

At Wednesday’s forum, TUSD representatives will discuss how funding shifts could affect various departments. Those departments include communications, curriculum and instruction, human resources, multicultural curriculum, student relations and transportation, among others.

At a heated governing board meeting Jan. 30, district officials proposed dismantling the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) department — funded by desegregation funds — and redistributing many of the department’s services to other TUSD departments. Several administration positions would have been cut.

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Moving desegregation funds from the EDI department drew significant public ire from a packed house at that meeting. District finance chief Ricky Hernandez then told the Arizona Daily Star the plan presented at that meeting is off the table.

As a result, the district has come up with several reallocation plans that will keep the EDI department intact.

The public will again have its say, as Wednesday’s forum will close with a period for community members to provide feedback and ask questions about specific cuts and reallocations.

No specific proposal is being presented, district officials said.

The forum is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Wed., March 20, at Duffy Community Center board room, 5145 E. Fifth St.