TUSD set to approve $600 million budget with minimal details in advance
At today’s TUSD board meeting, the board will be approving/rubber-stamping the $600 million budget that HT Sanchez’s administration will be presenting them with.
The only problem is this budget, as with most of their votes, is one of unearned trust, as minimal details are actually given into what they will be voting for before they vote to approve the massive amounts of money anyways.
This problem occurred at the June regular board meeting when TUSD blindly voted for spending of over $53 million in the consent agenda. In that, over 40%, or over $21 million, went to one corporation out of Scottsdale, ESI.
The diverse group of leaders at ESI in Scottsdale… notice that they have a person devoted just to Tucson thanks to TUSD.
At the following board meeting two weeks later, Michael Hicks brought up the fact that TUSD is spending over $21 million with this corporation, and board president Adelita Grijalva was in disbelief. She asked HR leader Anna Maiden about this, to which she said she doesn’t know either.
We believe Grijalva didn’t really know, since this item was hidden deep in the agenda, but for Maiden to not know about where TUSD’s substitute teachers come from? This comes after she shared a bunch of stats on all the employees that come from there, but yet she didn’t know how much it all costs? We are not buying this one; we think she was just trying to buy more time.
This is evidenced by the fact that at today’s July board meeting, this contract will be voted on once again. But wait, the board just voted to approve this spending last month!
Oh but now they can discuss it, and candidates Kristel Foster and Cam Juarez can now explain why we must vote for this, since they are running for re-election. This is all just a show for political purposes, and in the end, ESI will now get between $22 and $24 million as stated on the agenda. So this show is going to cost $1-$3 million since last month it was $21 million?
This brings us to the budget which will be described by CFO Soto.
First of all, the presentation itself is lazily constructed as always. Screenshots are taken so that on the big screen no one can actually see the items, which are not even captured in high quality but are already blurry! Seriously TUSD? This is a clear attempt to obfuscate the facts, and yet still with this blurry vision the board will rubber-stamp the $600 million.
For example, let’s look at page 6 of the presentation below.
You might notice an important item missing from this; nurses!
Regarding the spending of 301 and 123 monies, there is no clear information given. We have already shown, using TUSD’s own numbers, how unspent 301 monies has led to a reserve fund of $15.4 million, primarily by cutting the amount spent on performance pay.
On page 16 of the Budget presentation, we see that the proposed 301 budget for next year is $4.3 million more than this year. Since the revenues are not increasing by that much, that suggests that this money will be coming from not spending 301 monies and instead TUSD will be continuing its Hoarders problems once again.
That means that this year TUSD might now have a whopping $19.7 million in unspent 301 money, which is more money than TUSD even gets from 301 monies per year! But wait, I thought there was a crisis and we absolutely needed 123 to pass because of the lack of 301 monies?
So then why is TUSD not spending nearly $20 million in 301 monies that should have been going to teachers since HT Sanchez took office?
We have already shown that this fund grew under HT Sanchez and that he cannot blame Pedicone; the amount left over from him in 2012 was $1.67 million. HT’s signature is on these financial reports filed with the state each year since 2013 when the 301 surplus begins to grow.
Then, at the last meeting when TUSD approved 123 spending, all we knew was that teachers were getting a measly $700 raise.
What we didn’t know was how all the rest of the 123 money was going to be spent. There was no information in the agenda for the board, and thus no information for the public as the vote was being taken. So the board once again rubber-stamped millions of dollars in spending that they did not know how it was to be spent.
It was not until an Arizona Daily Star article on the subject, in the COMMENT section, that TUSD reveals the numbers breakdown. Apparently TUSD will be getting $9.7 in 123 money. What the board knew was that they were voting for $700 per teacher raise. The only information provided accounted for less than 30% of the total monies, and yet the board still approved the spending!
61% of the 123 money was not accounted for. And what is the true amount of 123 money? The CFO, the person who should know, said that TUSD would be getting $7.6 million, but the media person Stephanie Boe says $9.7 million. All we know for sure is that the board voted to approve something, but no one really knows what, not even them.
The TUSD budget is something around $600 million. It is too big and too important to be approved with less than clear, complete information.
On another note, when Kristel Foster is giving a presentation about her trip to Boston this year, she might not tell you about how Cam Juarez and her booked private rooms (in violation of TUSD policy) in expensive hotels, just as they did last year in Tennessee.
But hey, enjoy her cheesy powerpoint and ignore the truth that they try to suppress with their lack of transparency. Here’s a simple test for the professional media in this town to perform; ask the board about what exactly they are voting on before the meeting. Ask them how much they are voting for nurses, and what the breakdown is for anything. They probably won’t know, and yet in this ignorant state they will still rubber-stamp the budget that HT Sanchez will present to them.
Be pro-active rather than re-active. Show up to the board meeting today and demand answers. When you find out what the outcome of the budget is, and then try to organize and show up later this Fall, it will already be too late.
Originally published at TSON News.
