TUSD superintendent Trujillo gets 14% raise, contract extension

Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo is getting a pay raise and a contract extension that will add to his tenure as the district’s longest-serving top administrator in two decades.

The district’s governing board approved a three-year contract extension, through June 2026, for Trujillo, who was hired as superintendent in 2017.

Under the new contract beginning July 1, 2023, he will be paid an annual salary of $230,000, up about 14% from his current $202,000 in base pay, plus an increase of $5,000 each year of the contract term. He will also be eligible for $5,000 in performance-based pay each year and will receive a tax-deferred annuity of $15,000 per year.

The contract was approved by a 4-1 vote Nov. 15. Board member Sadie Shaw voted “no,” saying she would prefer to consider Trujillo’s contract renewal when incoming members elected Nov. 8 join the board in January. Jennifer Eckstrom and Val Romero will succeed members Adelita Grijalva and Leila Counts, whose terms expire Dec. 31.

Grijalva noted Trujillo is the longest-serving superintendent in the past 20 years, as he’s going into his fifth year in that post. He initially joined TUSD as assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in 2016.

Since 2000, according to the TUSD webpage, there have been seven superintendents. All, excluding Trujillo, served four years or fewer at the top of the district.

“The stability in this district is crucial,” Grijalva told Trujillo. “I think it’s a good, positive contract and shows that we value your leadership.”

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“It’s been a real pleasure and inspiration to see how you’ve led our district through so many difficulties, an unprecedented pandemic, to just a multitude of things,” board member Leila Counts told him. “You’re very accessible and you listen to all sides, and I appreciate that about you.”

Grijalva also highlighted that Trujillo received the Superintendent of the Year award by the Arizona Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents.

Trujillo said: “Serving TUSD continues to be the honor of a lifetime. The most rewarding aspect of this job is quite simply the people. It’s the honor of going into the schools, meeting our bus drivers, spending time with our employees and seeing all the wonderful things that happen with kids.”

The three-year term is the maximum allowed by Arizona law, said the district’s general counsel Robert Ross.

The contract also states the governing board must hold an executive session at least once every fiscal year to evaluate the superintendent’s job performance.