TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tucson Unified School District is on a hiring freeze for its administrative departments.
A budget update at Tuesday night's governing board meeting predicted the district will face a $21 million dollar annual average deficit through 2030.
TUSD Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo says that the district has seen a lack of funding from the state combined with declining enrollment and parents choosing school vouchers over public education.
That's something educators—like President of the Tucson Education Association Jim Byrne— witnessed. He sees the deficit as "not the other shoe, but one of many shoes falling.”
The funding struggle intensified in June of 2024 when as funding from the federal government from the COVID-19 pandemic expired.
Trujillo says that's leaving TUSD with an $8.6 million deficit heading into the 2025-2026 school year.
During a March 25 TUSD governing board meeting, TUSD's Chief Financial Officer Ricky Hernández presented a budget update. In that update, he announced two actions TUSD is taking to try and mitigate the deficit.
The district imposed a hiring freeze on any 'outside of the classroom' positions that were vacant and asked administrative departments to create a plan that would cut 3-6% of the department budget.
Both are aimed at administration, avoiding cutting budgets of schools themselves.
“Our core mission is classroom instruction," Trujillo said. "Schools are transformational institutions that change the lives of kids, and at the heart of that work is the classroom teacher. So, when we get into budget cuts, our true north is we protect the classroom at all costs. Our absolute final resort is to go into a school and start cutting its budget.”
The hiring freeze is set to thaw out June 30, 2025. Then, a hiring freeze review committee will decide what position to start hiring for again.
In the meantime, both TUSD and the TEA are searching for ways to make up the deficit.
“We’ve got a good relationship with the district where we can just start putting heads together," Byrne said. "We’re all in this boat differently, but we want to make sure public education is the best.”
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Alex Dowd is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9, where her work combines her two favorite hobbies: talking to new people and learning about the community around her. Her goal is to eventually meet every single person in Tucson. Share your story ideas with Alex via email, alex.dowd@kgun9.com, or connecting on Instagram or X.
