Tucson Unified School District is looking to add school safety monitors and custodians in fiscal year 2025.
The board is not being asked to approve any new spending, TUSD finance chief Ricky Hernandez said. “The board was informed on funding scenarios if a change in the allocation formula for each type of position was going to be implemented.”
Formulas determining the district’s number of custodial staff and safety monitor positions have remained unchanged since 2020.
The district spends $10.6 million on its 240 full-time-equivalent, 253-person custodial staff. The average student-to-custodial staff member ratio is 172:1.
Physical characteristics of a campus, enrollment and grade level are taken into consideration when distributing staff among TUSD properties.
The board will consider a range of proposals, to increase the student-to-custodial-staff ratios to: 100:1, costing an additional $9.3 million; 125:1 for an additional $5.8 million; or 150:1 for an additional $3.5 million.
TUSD is also considering expanding its roster of school safety monitors.
Current school safety monitor allocations are 212 students for every safety monitor. There are 187 full-time equivalent hours, costing the district $6.4 million.
Monitors keep a pulse on what’s happening in the hallways of TUSD schools, sharing information with school security officers and building administrators, the district says.
These high-demand positions are “one of the most popular requests that we have, especially in our larger high schools, where there’s just a lot more ground to cover for the monitors,” TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo told the board Tuesday. “You see places like Cholla and Pueblo … and even Tucson High (Magnet School).”
Tucson High has 11 full-time equivalent monitor positions — the most of any of TUSD’s high schools. The ratio is one monitor for every 262 students.
TUSD’s monitor distribution considers physical characteristics and security infrastructure of the property, along with enrollment and grade level.
Options proposed by district officials include a 150:1 ratio, costing the district an additional $4.1 million; 200:1, at an additional $1.8 million; or 250:1 for an additional $0.7 million.
There are no monitor positions up for elimination once pandemic relief funds run out.
Funding for custodians comes from the district’s maintenance and operations funds. Monitors are funded through a combination of maintenance and operations funds and grants.
There is not a shortage of custodians or monitors, Hernandez told the Arizona Daily Star.
“We have general turnover and attrition that has created vacancies, but nothing that is alarming for the district.”
