As a single mom working a dispatch job, Vanessa Hoyos takes any help she can get with school deadlines, forms and contacting teachers.
She relies on the patience, smarts and know-how of Susan Ramirez, the attendance technician at Tully Elementary — first with her oldest daughter Lucy, and now with her second-grader, Prince.
So when Ramirez, who has worked at Tully for 35 years, needed support on Tuesday night at the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board meeting, Hoyos was there with her kids. She stood in the back of a packed room with hundreds of others to show what the job means to staff, families and students.
“I am so grateful,” Hoyos said. “We’ve developed a friendship. And her position is important. Single parents like me depend on her position to help me.”
That assistance and connection is what front office staff around the city provide. And the board voted Tuesday night to value that work and save the attendance and registration technician jobs of about 30 people in the district.
Yet, the rest of the first round of proposed cuts to TUSD’s $27 million deficit was nearly all passed at the meeting. The board voted to cut $2.6 million in Fiscal Year 2027. And it unanimously voted to keep the attendance tech positions — which would have saved the district just over $1 million.
The approved cuts include:
- Eliminating all regional itinerant substitute teachers
- Eliminating the customer support center and associated positions
- Eliminating one regional assistant superintendent
- Merging the multicultural curriculum and culturally relevant pedagogy and instruction
- Eliminating the senior director of magnet programs
Hoyos attended the most raucous meeting since last April when an override vote proposal was on the line.
With a sea of red, the Tucson Education Association and other supporters waved signs saying “Keep Us!” They cheered when the board voted to keep the techs, whose work includes verifying absences, keeping student data and tracking tardies among other responsibilities.
“The proposed cuts to attendance techs will erode customer service and relationships that office staff develop with students and parents,” said TEA President Jim Byrne.
The techs each received an email on the afternoon of Feb. 20 from TUSD human resources saying their positions could be eliminated next year. Ramirez, who is a year away from retiring, was “blindsided,”
she said.
“It’s this trust, this consistency,” she said. “We have that with our community. We are the point of contact.”
Leaning over to chime in was office manager Glenda Rodriguez, a co-worker for the last 35 years: “I’ve been very heartbroken. Maybe they can come up with a different plan.”
More proposed cuts will go before the board at its March 10 meeting, TUSD Chief Financial Officer Ricky Hernandez said.
The board also voted to:
- Raise health care insurance premiums for the first time since the pandemic. A self-insured employee will pay nearly $16 more per paycheck next school year. This is the first hike in premiums since emergency relief funds and savings have run out. It was the first hike in premiums in over three years for the 6,000 employees.
- Start the process of right-sizing the district — examining school consolidations and closures beginning in 2027.
- Hire Norma Gonzalez as the new principal at Tucson High School. The district’s flagship school has been without a permanent principal for three years. Gonzalez is the current principal at Catalina High School and was a founder of TUSD’s Mexican American Studies Program.
Read the whiteboard
🌮 Lunch on the state is moving closer to becoming law because of a legislative bill sponsored by state Rep. Nancy Gutierrez of Tucson. Thebill would invest $4.5 million annually for free lunch. The bill allows schools that currently use Title I funding or other sources to cover meals, can use it for other priorities instead.
🏫 A bill in the Arizona Legislature wants to crack down on teachers and staff, penalizing educators who participate in an “organized work stoppage” and stripping funding from their districts. The bill’s creation comes on the heels of Jan. 20, when 21 TUSD schools were forced to close when educators called out — as part of a nationwide day of solidarity.
💰Less smoking could harm early childhood education funding. Listen here.
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