TUSD, citing Prop. 203, lays off 122 teacher aides
TUSD laid off 122 teacher aides because of anti-bilingual education legislation, although up to half of the employees could be rehired in similar jobs in several weeks, a district official said. Teacher aides hired after Jan. 1, 1998, in the Tucson Unified School District began receiving layoff letters over the weekend that said their positions are being eliminated, effective immediately. Those hired before that date are protected by a negotiated agreement between the Tucson Education Association and TUSD. Classes that qualify for a teacher aide - bilingual classes, special-education classes, classes that receive federal money for early childhood education or enroll more than a specific number of students - will receive aide services this year, said Assistant Superintendent Becky Montaņo. The layoffs are needed to create space for bilingual teacher aides who have seniority but whose jobs are gone because of a drastic reduction in the number of bilingual classes from last year to this year, Montaņo said. The voter-approved Proposition 203 places limited-English students in English immersion classes, starting this fall, and requires that parents request waivers if their children are to be placed in bilingual classes. But the problem is that TUSD does not know how many bilingual teacher aides will be needed and likely won't until school registration on Aug. 16. Officials are assuming requests for bilingual waivers will continue to come in until school starts. TUSD has issued about 1,500 waivers for the coming school year, compared with up to 10,000 students who were in bilingual education last year, Montaņo said. Bilingual classes automatically receive a teacher aide; English immersion classes will not, Montaņo said. District officials said they did not know how much money the layoffs will save TUSD. Bilingual teacher aide Elva Fimbres found the bad news in her mailbox Saturday. She said she asked after Proposition 203 passed last year about her job security and was told that there were no layoff plans. "I read the letter and couldn't believe it - I read it again and again and again," Fimbres said. "Then I started thinking: Am I not good enough? Is that why?" Fimbres, who worked part time, said she loved working with the pupils at Robison Elementary School but also needs the benefits. "The first thing I was thinking of was my family and my medical benefits," said Fimbres, whose husband may need another knee operation. "What are we going to do?" Once TUSD knows how many bilingual aides it needs, and the employees with seniority are in new positions, laid-off workers will be first in line to apply for vacancies, Montaņo said. She estimated that up to half the workers could be rehired by the start of school in late August. Tucson Education Association President Marilyn Freed blasted the district for its handling of the situation, saying the prospect of layoffs should have been included in contract negotiations or the budget process that was finished July 10. "This just came out of nowhere," Freed said. "There was never a single word said about people being laid off - that's disrespectful to those people, TEA, and it's not a good way to do business." First-grade teacher Marguerite Granberry worked with Fimbres last year at Robison. The layoffs hit her by surprise, too. "Those people are being shuffled around like a deck of cards," Granberry said. "It's so irresponsible for the district to wait until now. It's a major hardship. "We were talking about expanding the number of bilingual teacher aides just last week," Granberry said. That could still happen, but with different people in the jobs. The possibility of different types of teacher aides being transferred around disturbs Granberry, who fears employees will be placed in positions without specialized training. "You can't just put an engineer as a plumber or a plumber as an engineer," Granberry said. TUSD had no choice but to lay off the entire group of employees and then rehire to fill gaps because the negotiated agreement with TEA requires that layoffs go by seniority, Montaņo said. Governing Board member Rosalie Lopez said the board knew of the probability of layoffs in bilingual education as far back as March, and that the Tucson Education Association should have analyzed the budget better to figure out the potential cuts. Lopez called the situation a "fabricated crisis" that the district contrived to scare employees and then appear to come to their rescue by offering them other jobs. * Contact Sarah Garrecht Gassen at 573-4117 or at sgassen@azstarnet.com. |