TUSD plans to give employees up to $1,000 each

Tucson Unified School District’s administrators want to use $4.2 million in federal money to give a one-time payment of up to $1,000 each to employees.

Approximately 8,800 employees would benefit from the payment, said TUSD Chief Financial Officer Ricky Hernandez, if the TUSD Governing Board approves the plan at its meeting Tuesday night.

It would be offered instead of a permanent salary increase, which has been off the table since dropping enrollment figures were tallied towards the beginning of this school year, Hernandez said Monday.

The money is to come from TUSD’s remaining, uncommitted COVID relief funding, which must be spent by Sept. 30.

Regular, full-time employees would receive $1,000. Part-time employees (less than half time) would receive $500. Substitute teachers, elementary school monitors and bus driver trainees completing 25 days by May 22, 2024, would be eligible.

Payments to district employees would be made in two rounds on June 14 and June 28.

At the end of last spring, the Governing Board and employee bargaining groups agreed on a pay increase based on enrollment but then, a loss of students meant state funding for TUSD is reduced, Hernandez said.

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In place of a salary increase, TUSD is making “a good faith effort” to act on the earlier conversation between administration and employee bargaining groups by proposing the one-time stipend using the relief money, he said.

Should this proposal not be approved, “The possibility of doing this would be really difficult at that point,” Hernandez said, referring to additional employee compensation.

Representatives for Tucson Education Association, the district’s teachers’ union, declined to comment Monday, saying they want to wait until after the Governing Board vote.

TUSD board member Ravi Shah said Monday of the COVID money, “We want to make sure we use it to benefit our students. There’s no way to benefit our students more than making sure we have the best workforce available for them.”

District employees received stipends through previous rounds of COVID relief funding totaling $7,500. The last payment, a retention stipend, was made in December 2023.

The Governing Board meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, at Duffy Community Center, Multipurpose Room, 5145 E. Fifth St.