TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Taranika Sanders spent time with her faculty and staff on Friday, talking to them about their morning coffee.
It’s a daily routine for the Utterback Middle School principal to spend time with her collages, talking to them about whatever is on their minds.
It’s also a daily routine for her to review the school’s budget, deciding whether to deduct funds from the budget and try to find grants to supplement it.
Arizona legislators voted to approve a budget of about $1.3 billion above the state’s limit for education.
This means schools might have to give the money back, but some legislators are pushing to do away with the cap.
If legislators keep the cap on educational spending, Sanders said she might have to lay off faculty who teach electives.
“Thinking about not having the people that we’ve grown, that we’ve loved, that we have, have made connections with our students… is very hard to swallow,” Sanders said.
Tucson Unified School District’s chief financial officer Ricardo Hernandez said the district budget for this school year is $370 million.
If they did have to give money back to the government, he said they would have to pay back around $71 million.
He said the $71 million they would have to give back to the government is equivalent to the pay for 1,300 teachers.
Hernandez said they haven’t made any decision yet, but they would they would have until April 4 to submit a revised budget to the state that shows them the cuts they would have to make.
Sanders said that would force Utterback to cut some programs, specifically in the arts department, saying, “Then there’s no creativity, no exploration.”
Margaret Cheney, the president of the Tucson Education Association said laying off teachers could mean larger class sizes with less space.
“It would mean a less safe environment because you have more students and fewer adults to monitor those students,” Cheney said.
She said she’s hoping legislators will lift the budget requirement and expand the limit.
Lawmakers are pushing for Governor Doug Ducey to call a special session to lift the limit. That would allow schools to spend all of the money the government gave them for this school year.
Incoming representative of LD 18 and yoga teacher at Tucson High Nancy Gutierez is also hoping lawmakers will lift the limit for this school year.
When she takes office she’s hoping to get rid of the limit altogether so schools don’t have to face this problem again….
“That would mean a special election or getting it on the 2024 ballot and that would be the best. It would alleviate the most stress off our public education,” Gutierrez said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
