The Tucson Unified School District has laid off at least 15 bus monitors, a move that union officials say shocked some employees, though district officials say there was ample warning.
Bus monitors assist students with special needs and keep an eye on other children and teens to stop misbehavior.
While the district still employs at least 140 bus monitors, TUSD officials said the cuts — made Thursday — are part of the district's larger attempt to balance a projected budget deficit for the upcoming school year. The layoffs are expected to save at least $200,000 as officials continue to search for several million dollars in savings.
Bruce Slabaugh, president of TUSD's blue-collar union, said he was informed of the layoffs around 7:30 a.m. on May 22.
"It was the last day of school. They didn't tell those people until they got back in the afternoon from their last run," Slabaugh said. "Totally coldblooded, totally heartless."
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Beatriz Rendon, TUSD's chief executive officer, said the possibility of layoffs was consistently mentioned during discussions with union leaders.
"All the proposed cuts the board saw, the union leadership saw," she said.
Slabaugh said there was no two-week notice for the employees, as is required as part of TUSD's contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union local 449.
TUSD spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander did not know if written notices went out beforehand; TUSD Director of Transportation Tom Mulligan did not return phone calls Tuesday.
Governing Board President Alex Rodriguez said there were communication problems.
"It's not an issue of whether it was a surprise or not, but how the bus monitors were informed," he said. "We need to make improvements in the way the district communicates decisions."
Five days after the announcement, it remains unclear exactly how many employees were fired. Slabaugh, Rendon and Lander all provided different figures — between 15 and 20.
The cost for TUSD's bus monitors amounts to slightly more than 23 percent, or $5.2 million, of the transportation department's $21.9 million budget from the last school year, according to a district audit conducted by MGT of America Inc..
Auditors estimated TUSD could save nearly $500,000 annually if it reduced bus monitors by 10 percent and installed digital cameras on buses without monitors. On May 16, TUSD's Governing Board voted to limit the use of bus monitors.
Slabaugh said the layoffs prompted representatives of AFSCME to withdraw from the district's labor-management committee. It also could result in the loss of blue-collar support for TUSD's budget override, scheduled for the November election.
"Why should we spend one more minute for a district that treats us this way?" he asked. "This is the district balancing its budget on employees instead of looking at programs."
A total of 34 bus-monitor positions have been eliminated this year, Rendon said, and 16 employees had lay-off protection, meaning they were placed in other district jobs.
The projected deficit for the upcoming school year, Rendon said, has been whittled to less than $3 million, not including expected cost savings from a recently announced shared principal program, in which seven principals will run two schools each. In late January, the projected deficit was an estimated $15 million.
"It was the last day of school. They didn't tell those people until they got back in the afternoon from their last run. Totally coldblooded, totally heartless."
Bruce Slabaugh,
president of TUSD's blue-collar union
