Some Tucson Unified School District schools, including Sahuaro High School, will cancel classes Friday due to hundreds of potential employee absences protesting immigration enforcement.
TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo sent an email to families this morning asking them to prepare for possible school closures, including making child care arrangements. The district may not have enough staff to keep schools open, the email says.
“Our primary goal is to keep schools open and to provide a consistent, safe learning environment for our students,” the note said. “However, if we determine that we cannot meet the necessary supervision ratios to ensure student safety, we may be forced to cancel classes.”
A final class-closure decision will come this afternoon, the district told parents in an email sent about 1 p.m. TUSD says it is monitoring staffing levels and principals from each school will email families with the status.
Sahuaro High School emailed students and families about 2 p.m., saying it is forced to cancel classes “due to a high volume of staff and teacher absences.”
Hundreds of TUSD employees have said they will be out Friday as part of a national shutdown protest, following the fatal shootings by federal agents of two people in Minneapolis and an uptick in ICE activity in the Tucson-area over the last two weeks.
TUSD employs about 6,000 people, serving 35,000 students in 88 schools.
Sunnyside Unified School District and Amphitheater Public Schools say classes will proceed as normal on Friday.
The call-in absences come on the heels of staff who voiced concern at Tuesday’s TUSD governing board meeting. Of the dozen people who spoke at a call to the audience, about half were teachers and staff asking for district protocol to address any ICE presence on school campuses.
“We want a comprehensive plan from the district that details a step-by-step action plan for monitors, teachers, front-office staff,” Pueblo High teacher Victoria Bodanyi told Arizona Luminaria. “We want a script, copies of what a correct judicial warrant looks like, what documents and information need to be collected. We want a plan to keep parents safe during pick-up and drop-off.”
Thousands of students potentially missing school because of an employee shortage is reminiscent of the 2018 Arizona Red for Ed teacher’s strike for improved pay and classroom resources, which went on for at least a week at public school districts across the state.
Bodanyi toted her then-1-month old to those protests, she said. She is now a TUSD parent.
“I understand folks are upset about this movement and with teachers calling out. But if we don’t stand up now, we wouldn’t be doing our job to protect our students,” she said. “Arizona is next. What is happening in Minneapolis with happen here. It’s already happening. We have to speak out.”
The staff absence also follows last week’s walkout by thousands of TUSD high school students around the city, who protested the ICE presence here and across the country.
“We understand that some educators are choosing how they want to participate in the National Call of Action on Friday the 30th and for some folks that means calling off of work on Friday,” said Jim Byrne, president of the Tucson Education Association, the labor union which represents teachers and most other classified employees.
“We as a union understand this is a moment — especially in Arizona — that has a history and a legacy of violent and fearful immigration enforcement from the days of (former Maricopa County sheriff) Joe Arpaio continuing into the second term of this (Trump) administration,” Byrne said.
“But we’re here for our students. We’re here for our families who fear for their safety and if immigration enforcement is getting in the way of learning, then we want to make sure that our families see us, know that we understand them and that we support their right to learn and their access to a free public education.”
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