No annual pink slips this year at TUSD

Sanchez said Friday that no pink slips will be issued this year to teachers, counselors, librarians or other certified staff members. Instead, the Tucson Unified School District will work to match employees with other positions within the district. Those who cannot be matched will be placed into a long-term substitute-teacher pool, maintaining their existing salaries and benefits.

“This is a much better process than telling people they don’t have a job, leaving them only the summer to find a means to take care of their families,” Sanchez said in a memo to the Governing Board.

The change will alleviate much of the stress and heartache that hundreds of TUSD employees have been subject to every year for the last several years when campuses didn’t have enough money to continue positions.

In the past, after teachers were told they wouldn’t have a job, they would be invited to apply for other vacancies, and while many succeeded in securing a job within the district, the uncertainty caused some to seek positions elsewhere.

Frances Banales, president of the Tucson Education Association, the union that represents teachers in TUSD, supports the change, calling the previous practice harmful.

“It has displaced a lot of people unnecessarily,” Banales said. “It’s horrible for retention and morale, especially when it’s done over and over again.”

Under the new system, “people will know they have a job and opportunity in TUSD,” Banales said. “It shows that TUSD really values the employees.”

For Sanchez, taking care of his staff members is what it all comes down to.

“I’m trying to do the best I can to come up with plans to support our teachers,” said Sanchez, who has also started low-cost day-care centers for employees and salary adjustments for longtime teachers. “These are things I hope show that we value, respect and want our team members to stay with us.”

The new process will use district-initiated transfers, aligning teachers with vacancies they are certified for. For those who can’t be placed, the district will create a long-term substitute pool for the upcoming school year, giving teachers an opportunity to see if a job in their area opens up or to expand their certification to fill an existing need. At the same time, the process will fill a void for campuses in need of long-term substitute teachers.

While it may seem costly to retain those who cannot be placed, Sanchez doesn’t expect that the pool will be very large — likely no more than 50 people — or that the expense will be very high.

Annually, TUSD has many positions that go unfilled, resulting in about $1.5 million to $2 million in teacher salaries that gets shifted to cover substitutes. In terms of benefits, next year under the Affordable Care Act, the district will have to cover anyone who works more than 30 hours a week — a category that long-term substitutes would fall into.

Add to that the fact that TUSD teachers would already be familiar with policies, procedures, systems and the community that they would be serving.

“These people have the experience and they know how to take care of our kids,” Sanchez said. “The benefit outweighs the slightly higher cost.”

No one on the TUSD staff can recall a time when pink slips haven’t been issued, Sanchez said.