Roger Pfeuffer

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A letter from Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer sent to all district employees Monday denies teachers union claims that state surplus money funded TUSD's smaller class-size initiative.

Instead, a spending chart sent as an e-mail attachment along with the letter says the district used the $5.4 million to pay for salary and benefit increases agreed upon three years ago.

But the decision to use the one-time bonus money to fulfill the final year of the contract was not the intent of the funds, according to Gov. Janet Napolitano's deputy chief of staff.

Pfeuffer said the letter initially was drafted Friday and was released late Monday afternoon along with the spending chart. The documents were sent to more than 9,000 TUSD employees via e-mail, district spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander said.

The five-paragraph letter follows a letter from the Tucson Education Association, also issued Monday, claiming the bonus money went into funding a district initiative to reduce class size.

" 'Surplus' money from the state budget absolutely was not used to fund the initiative," Pfeuffer's letter said.

The small class size initiative, which reduces student-teacher ratios to 18-to-1 in kindergarten and first grade, was funded with other money, Pfeuffer wrote. The chart illustrated his point.

After receiving a total of $12.1 million in surplus funds from the state for the TUSD management and operations budget, $11.6 million went for salary and benefit increases. Included in the total is at least $5.4 million from a $100 million bonus to be distributed to school districts across Arizona for benefit and salary bonuses for teachers and non-administrative personnel.

While the bonus money went for salary and benefit increases for non-administrative staff, it also was used to pay for the last year of a three-year contract with the teachers union.

Asked why surplus money was used to finish paying on a contract made three years ago, Lander said, "There's nothing wrong with that."

That's not so, according to Mike Haener, Napolitano's deputy chief of staff.

"If there was a three-year contract that teachers signed three years ago that allowed for a raise every year, the $5.4 million should have been on top of that," Haener said.

The intent of the surplus money was to offer higher wages and benefits to retain and recruit teachers, he explained, though he said he didn't know the specifics of TUSD's budget.

"The issue here is that we agreed three years ago to a three-year contract," Pfeuffer said. "We have honored that."

He explained that since the contract was agreed upon, health care costs have risen. The state's bonus funds helped keep employees from shouldering part of that cost, he said.

"We may have had to go through a cost-share program with employees," he said.

Of the $12.1 million received, Pfeuffer argued, only $5.4 million was required for salary and benefit increases, but TUSD more than doubled that by spending $11.6 million.

When asked if the $5.4 million should have been a bonus added to the final year of the contract, Pfeuffer said: "We can only pay as much as we've got. To the extent our resources allowed, we gave it to our employees."

Union President Rosalva Meza said that after the letter went out to teachers, around 3 p.m. Monday, the union headquarters began receiving phone calls from confused and angry teachers. She said the union also is concerned because the teachers and non-administrative staff are being paid with surplus funds.

"Can they use this money the way they are? This money is not going to be on the table next year. That's why this was a bonus," Meza said. "If this was not the increases, what are they going to do next year? That money was a one-time thing."

This isn't the first confusion or controversy about the funds.

On Friday, Albert Siqueiros, TUSD's director of employee relations, said the district received $5.4 million from the state, but Arizona Department of Education spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico said TUSD was allocated $5.57 million.

State officials said there has been confusion about how to disburse the money, resulting in at least one lawsuit that the Arizona Attorney General's Office had to weigh in on.

Other districts are spending the funds in different ways.

For example, the Sunnyside Unified School District will divide its $2.5 million among three initiatives: all-day kindergarten, hiring more teachers to decrease class size and granting raises to more than 1,000 teachers in the district. The Marana Unified School District and Amphitheater Public Schools will give the money to teachers.