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Four TUSD elementary schools may be shuttered TUSD board considers cost-cutting ideas

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The TUSD Governing Board will revisit its February decision to reduce the number of librarians and counselors in schools at a study session tonight. The board isn't scheduled to make changes, but the fact that the discussion is on the agenda is telling.

At least one board member, Joel Ireland, says he's having second thoughts about the necessity of the severe changes the board approved Feb. 12.

We encourage the board to exa-mine every possibility to save money or generate revenue. But the members must be mindful that TUSD is facing a roughly $15 million deficit this year without a cushion of reserves. Difficult and no doubt unpopular decisions must be made.

The board in February approved a staffing formula that allocates money for certified positions without designating it for librarians or counselors. This leaves the choice up to schools and essentially requires them to choose between the two.

The change isn't sitting well with schools or parents who rightly argue that librarians and counselors are integral parts of every school.

This has become a hard choice because TUSD and the state are both facing a huge deficit this year.

Ireland, who is up for re-election in November, wants the board to consider altering the new staffing formula at elementary and middle schools. The money saved might not be worth the human cost, he said.

According to district figures, the changes are projected to save $245,394 in middle schools and $1.5 million in elementary schools.

"I think it's too severe and the bundling of it is causing real consternation at the sites, so you have to look at that," Ireland said in an interview Monday. "It's a matter of choosing an economic solution understanding that you're going to have to make some cuts. You have to have an overall approach."

At the very least, the board should make it clear that these reductions are temporary and when times are economically better, the lost positions will be restored.

Ireland also said he's leaning against closing Wrightstown Elementary School, which has been marked for closure, along with Rogers, Ochoa and Corbett elementaries. The school closure vote is expected in April. He said Monday that he doesn't see the wisdom in closing "highly performing" schools, which he said could also exempt Rogers.

"I am reconsidering because as the issues develop, I'm thinking if you're going to look at school closures, which are pretty traumatic, look at schools that are not performing, undersized and (make sure) the schools you're sending them to are better performing schools," Ireland said. "School closures are still on the map. If I vote no on school closures, it's just these schools."

Ireland said he thinks the budget problems may not be as severe as feared because the state could back down from requirements that all districts provide special instruction for students learning English — a requirement TUSD estimates would cost about $7 million.

Maybe that will happen, maybe it won't. But TUSD can't afford to bank on a hope for good news.

Tucson Education Association President Steve Courter said his group hasn't been vocally opposed to the librarian and counselor staffing changes for a good reason.

"It's not as much a matter of fighting as looking for alternatives," he said. "If you fight and win in one place it just means that employees in other areas get hit.

"We're trying to find ways to spread the pain out as evenly as we can because there is going to be pain next year and we don't want to hurt any one group," Courter said.

The Governing Board must focus on the big picture and remember that undoing one budget cut, no matter how worthy, simply shifts the financial pressures to another vital group of employees, another worthy program, another school beloved by its neighborhood.