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There will be no easy transition when Elizabeth Celania-Fagen takes the Tucson Unified School District helm on July 1.

Perhaps at no time in recent memory has the district faced such a multitude of challenges.

She'll be briefed at a special meeting today on some of the big ones, such as:

The district needs to close a $2 million hole for this fiscal year, which ends in July. And while the bottom line could still change, that deficit now stands at $7.8 million.

The board is scheduled to vote at the end of the month on whether to close four schools to save an estimated $1.8 million.

Critics have urged the district to slow down the process. But even if the closures happen, and those saving estimates hold, that still leaves a big deficit.

TUSD Chief Executive Officer Beatriz Rendon said the staff will do what it can to keep the cuts out of the classroom.

While there's a tendency to think that budget woes come and go, she said, this year is different. TUSD has depleted its cash reserves, which it was able to rely on in the past. Costs such as transportation and health care are soaring. And there's less money coming in. If the district can't balance its budget, the state will penalize it financially, creating a double whammy next year.

TUSD peaked in 1997-98 at roughly 63,000 students. Every year since, it's been losing about 300 to 500 students. This school year, the district dropped 1,200 students, said district planner Bryant Nodine.

Possible culprits include the explosion in charter schools. Also, more housing opportunities cropped up outside the district boundaries, particularly in the Sahuarita, Vail and Sunnyside areas. Meanwhile, coinciding with the mortgage crisis, growth flattened in TUSD's Southwest portions that had been a source of expansion.

The implications are vast.

Each student brings in an average of $3,800 in funding. Fewer students mean less money.

TUSD won't be able to build schools in growing areas like the Southwest Side if there's room in under-enrolled schools on the East Side. That may force more talks of school closures.

TUSD is embarking on a three-pronged campaign to stop the loss, said marketing specialist Joe Bidwell.

In August, TUSD officials told students that with a federal judge striking down its racial-balance mandate, students were free to attend any school of their choice in the district, if there was room. Word is getting out: Open-enrollment applications jumped 20 percent.

The second phase should begin in mid-May, with TUSD spending $25,000 on radio, TV and print advertising to try to woo back some students who switched to charter schools.

Celania-Fagen will play a big role in the third phase, when TUSD launches a full-blown rebranding effort in the fall to reverse declining enrollment.

TUSD awaits word about whether a federal judge will lift a decades-old desegregation order.

The district already submitted a plan to the court to show how it would maintain racial balance in its schools.

In many ways, things won't look all that different. The district isn't expected to lose funding as a result of the ruling. Many of the plan's highlights are already being carried out.

"Ultimately, what it means is our Governing Board will be able to make decisions without going to federal court," said Richard Gastellum, desegregation administrator.

How the costs vs. the benefits will play out isn't yet known. It could be a boon if TUSD can re-connect with students who left for charter schools because racial restrictions kept them from neighborhood schools.

It will mean, however, that TUSD's pool of students may be more vulnerable to poaching.

With the district no longer under such tight restrictions on enrollment, Catalina Foothills sent out 43,000 invitations by postcard earlier this year, asking TUSD students to consider enrolling in its schools. Tanque Verde has also reached out to TUSD students.

And Celania-Fagen will still have to address long-standing concerns about how the district has educated its minority students. "They've done a lousy job," said Rubin Salter Jr., the attorney who represents black parents in TUSD desegregation litigation.

He said he hopes Celania- Fagen will come up with new approaches and surround herself with a qualified staff to address ongoing problems. "It needs to come from the hearts and minds of administrators. They shouldn't have to be told to do something by the court," he said.

Seventy-five percent of TUSD's schools are performing well, and the district has channeled energy into stabilizing its middle schools, said Steven Holmes, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.

Still, about a quarter of the district's 107 schools must take some form of corrective action to comply with academic targets set by the federal or state governments.

Holmes will tell Celania- Fagen today that one of the linchpins will be boosting performance for the 7,700 students who come to school speaking a language other than English.

A big part of that discussion will hinge on money.

The Legislature set aside $40.6 million Thursday to fund a new program that requires schools to place students struggling with English into special classes for four hours of "immersion learning" each day.

TUSD would get no new money under the state's interpretation that it would first have to use the money it now spends to keep its schools in racial balance. TUSD counters that the desegregation money is funneled into other areas, including magnet schools, and that it needs millions to buy materials and fund 107 teaching positions to comply with the new model.

The federal judge overseeing the state's plan to improve instruction for English-language learners is expected to hear arguments Tuesday about the adequacy of the $40.6 million and the state's determination that desegregation money will supplant new money.

The district, though, is also seeking other relief. It will ask the state in May to approve an alternative to the four-hour requirement. "We don't believe English-language learners benefit from being segregated for four hours a day," Holmes said.

He would prefer pulling students out for two hours of language instruction, then folding them back into the mainstream for other content areas, with assurance that they will work on language skills in those other classes as well. It's also cheaper, requiring only 70 new positions.

Sometime in May, the Governing Board is expected to consider asking voters in November for a budget override.

The district can ask for up to $27 million. Some possibilities: expanding the fine arts program, reinstating smaller class sizes and providing incentives for hard-to-fill teaching jobs.

If voters approve the override, it won't help with the immediate budget woes. The money won't be available until next year.

In 2000, voters raised the state sales tax to provide more money for education, teachers and helping with AIMS preparation. But that measure also ended districts' authority to raise taxes for high utility bills.

This year and next year are covered. After that, if state lawmakers don't step in and reinstate the taxing ability, classrooms across the state would have to absorb $90 million in budget cuts, said TUSD lobbyist Sam Polito. TUSD would have to find $8 million, he said.

"It isn't just electricity. Now you need more telephones to provide security in isolated classrooms. Now you have cell phones. Now you've got the Internet to pay for," Polito said.