Tucson Unified School District starts chipping away at $10 million cuts for next school year

The Tucson Unified School District has approved about $2.6 million of what is expected to be a total of about $10 million dollars in cuts from its budget for next year.

The district is projected to have a $27 million budget deficit by 2030 and has been identified as a “high financial risk” district by the Arizona auditor general.

At a governing board meeting this week, Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo highlighted several factors that have led to declines in enrollment and therefore, less money coming into the district.

“The rise of vouchers that have now siphoned off over $30 million that would have been available to TUSD before the universal access that was granted by the legislature," Trujillo said. "Folks waiting longer to have kids, folks not having kids, and to me, the most disturbing stat is 47% of homeowners east of Swan [Road] being 55 or over."

The first cuts include:

• Elimination of all Regional Itinerant Substitute Teachers — savings: $913,855
• Elimination of the Customer Support Center & associated positions — savings: $1,132,159
• Elimination of one Regional Assistant Superintendent Office — savings: $222,600
• Merging Multicultural Curriculum & Culturally Relevant Pedagogy & Instruction — savings: $296,235
• Elimination of Senior Director of Magnet Programs position — savings: $129,360

The board has also directed the budget committee to explore possible school consolidations for the following academic year.

The initial cuts were supposed to include reducing the attendance staff, but after hearing from the community, the board removed that item. Board member Sadie Shaw said they should cut non-essential costs, like travel, before letting go of employees.

“There’s a lot that we’ve done that I’ve even voted for, like the $1 million contract for the landscapers. I think it was BrightView," Shaw said. "Let the grass grow wild if we can keep positions in our schools.”