Tucson Unified School District Gives Raise

 

I read about TUSD giving teachers all a $500 a year raise and then noted the fact that all other district employees will get a 2.5% raise. 

Teachers make from $32,000 to $71,000 a year with an average of about $58,000 per year, which shows this is an older workforce.  $58,000 a year would yield about $1450 at 2.5% but $500 is the raise.   There are 1750 regular teachers and 760 special education teachers and the teacher raise is expected to cost about $875,000.

Certificated Administrators make from $58,000 - $107,000 and their raise at 2.5% is expected to cost about $400,000.  There are 237 administrators.     

This raise is expected to cost $1,275,000 for certificated staff, with administrators getting 31% of the certificated money while they are just 13% of the total.   

The Superintendent’s contract has a base salary of $210,000 but is pumped up by bennies to $247,000 and possibly more.   At $210,000, a 2.5% raise would generate $5,250 for the Superintendent.  If the raise is based on $247,000, it would be more.

To quote from Tucson News Now:   “TUSD officials have estimated it will take $4.4 million to implement these increases and that it will be funded by money from the Maintenance and Operations budget.”   It looks to me like this raise is mostly going to support staff.   Given their dire budgetary predictions and dropping student enrollment, can they really afford this raise without taking needed materials from classrooms, cancelling field trips, and limiting student options?

After looking over this ‘raise’, it is obviously a palliative for the teachers and a bonus for the administrators.  If TUSD is truly on the financial ropes, then this raise is only self-serving to the administrators and does not assist the students at all.  As for the teachers, they get $500, which is something in the teaching world but they are being preempted by the administrators, who are getting way more than that.  How about the lower paid workers who get way less than that?  How about a $500 raise for everybody and funnel more money into the classrooms for the use of the students and teachers?