Higley Schools Blog

See a recent article over at AZ Central about that here.

More than 200 Mesa Public Schools teachers will be notified Monday that they won’t have jobs next school year.

Janice Ramirez, assistant superintendent for human resources for the Mesa district, let principals know Friday that 208 teachers will receive reduction in force notifications that were mailed out Friday.

Nearly every district in the valley is in the same bind. See an article on that here.

Starting Monday, Mesa Unified will hand out notices to 310 people, including more than 200 teachers. In Higley Unified, more than 60 jobs are being eliminated. Apache Junction Unified will lose 13 percent of its teachers.

The Arizona Daily Star reported Friday that Tucson Unified told more than 600 employees that their positions are being eliminated next year.

Preliminary reports from Scottsdale Unified indicate 230 staff members may lose their jobs. Queen Creek Unified School District’s meeting agenda for Tuesday includes approval of that district’s reduction-in-force list. Preliminary numbers indicate Queen Creek may have 20 to 25 teachers on the list, according to Superintendent James Murlless.

In some districts, more reduction-in-force notices may be given out than necessary, with the possibility some people may be invited back once districts finalize funding.

The latest news of budget cuts from state lawmakers includes a 5 percent across-the-board funding cut for public schools ($257 million statewide), as well as cutting early kindergarten ($11.2 million) and rolling back building maintenance grants ($7 million). The state already reduced this year’s budgets for Arizona schools by more than $100 million.

In addition, schools will likely see a 37 percent reduction in dollars from the state’s sales-tax-driven classroom site fund. That money is used to fund teacher salaries and incentive pay.

Even with federal stimulus money coming, the guidelines are so unclear at this time, districts say they cannot count on that money given their April 15 deadline.

Update: Gilbert school district plans to axe 200-250 teachers.

One notable exception is the Chandler district that seems to have avoided the mess. I don’t know where all their money is coming from but there is some consensus that the now-discontinued funding program (was it called “Career Ladder”?) Chandler got in on more than a decade ago makes a key difference.