Other articles by Rhonda Bodfield:

GOP deal to OK $450M in budget cuts falls apart Arizona has 30-year trend toward more heavy reliance on sales taxes Munger calls on pols to shun public funds Political notebook : Shadegg ventriloquizes a baby and has no regrets AZ gov candidate Munger calls for break in state-funded campaignsPolitical Notebook: Rep. Shadegg's health care speech goes viral Plan to sue over TUSD deseg levy is dropped 109 votes found after election's 'final tally' Political notebook : Paton sells himself on Web 'commercial' Political Notebook: Paton's slick online ad signal Giffords challenge?

Health Care
RLM Services, Inc.
Orthopedic Assistant-CMA Health Care
BENSON HOSPITAL
RESPIRATORY THERAPIST Sales and Marketing
Ever-Ready Glass
Glass Sales

Even as layoff notices went out to white-collar workers across the Tucson Unified School District this week, district officials posted seven more administrative openings — including three brand-new director positions at a starting salary of nearly $84,000 each.

The positions essentially negate the cuts Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen made to her immediate Cabinet earlier this year, when she won approval in March from the Governing Board to let her six closest Cabinet members know they would no longer have contracts at the end of the school year.

Fagen explained that other central office cuts allowed her to reallocate resources to afford the staffers, and said she needs the additional administrators to complete her vision for TUSD.

Fagen has asked school leaders to develop a clear focus under an ambitious plan that would allow them to create specialized niches so that students can choose from a variety of educational programs.

But the timing isn't sitting well as schools make painful decisions to bump up class sizes, cut counselors, or lose electives, and as the Governing Board earlier this month opted to not cut its own executive staff.

"I'm not too happy," said Steve Boykins, the parent of a fourth-grader at Corbett Elementary School. "I don't understand how they could be creating new positions when they're cutting programs at the school."

His school lost teachers to layoffs and his daughter didn't have a single field trip this school year. "Budget cuts are cutting into those experiences. And with TUSD in a bad way already, this is just going to make it worse," he said.

When the six top staffers were given notice, they were told they could apply for four newly created assistant superintendent positions, which would pay anywhere up to $120,000, with a possible $10,000 performance bonus at the end of the year.

So far, two of those positions have been filled, both with members who served in Fagen's Cabinet this year.

The incoming assistant superintendent for elementary schools, Maggie Shafer, who made $91,990, and the incoming assistant superintendent of middle schools, Jim Fish, who made $92,600, each will receive $110,000 and the opportunity to earn $10,000 in performance incentives.

Two of the three new positions will report to Shafer and serve as directors for elementary education, with the third position reporting to Fish as director of middle schools.

The other two assistant superintendent posts have yet to be filled, but assuming they pay roughly equivalent to Shafer's and Fish's jobs, and assuming the three directors come in at the starting pay, the executive team will cost about $700,000. The six academic officers collectively made about $550,000.

Fagen said she can afford the new staffers because she made deep cuts to other areas of instructional leadership. The directors in charge of curriculum, professional development and communications have all been laid off, which allowed further reductions in clerical staff and assistants. She also didn't fill some operational jobs, such as the one held by the former chief business officer, Beatriz Rendon.

"I totally understand that we need to cut this to the bone so that our schools can have the maximum number of staff, but I just don't feel like we can do the things we collectively want to do and meet the needs of the students we have with fewer people than this," she said. "I don't want to set us up for failure."

With principals being asked to take on more responsibility and to develop new educational models, they need sufficient support, she said. And that wouldn't happen if Shafer was the only contact for the district's 72 elementary schools.

Fagen said it is imperative, too, that TUSD have stronger evaluations of principal performance, which requires more staff. Such evaluations, she said, "are really a cornerstone of our future success. We cannot short-change them."

Luci Messing, the new president of the Tucson Education Association, which represents teachers and white-collar workers, said she understands why the moves rankle some, but she has sat in on enough meetings with district officials that she's comfortable that cuts have been made in the central office.

"While it doesn't look good, I understand it and I hope it works. We've got to give her a chance," she said, adding the old system was ineffective. "If it doesn't work after a year, we can revisit it then. But if we keep seeing new positions coming up, then we'll need to look at that."

The other four director positions are for the ethnic studies departments and will pay about $78,000 each. While technically new, they existed last year and were eliminated as part of the layoff rounds in April and then reposted with new expectations and responsibilities.

In April, 560 non-tenured certified staffers received pink slips. Some 55 layoff notices went out Wednesday to operations workers. TUSD officials have said they hope to hire back some of the employees after the district budget is finalized.