Mesa teachers, staff plan vigil to protest cuts

Mesa teachers and staff are hoping silence speaks loudly this week.

Groups that represent Mesa Unified School District teachers and support staff are planning a joint silent vigil to take place before Tuesday's governing board meeting at the curriculum services center, 549 N. Stapley Road.

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Will Moore, the Arizona Education Association's consultant to the Mesa groups, said leaders hope hundreds of people will show up to direct their anger, not at the school board, but at state lawmakers.

"This is one of the reasons we didn't have any showing at all when the school board dealt with the (reduction-in-force notices)," Moore said Monday. "We're not blaming the board for notifying people. We realize they are doing what they have to do.

"Our message is directly aimed at the Legislature and the governor's office."

The fiscal year begins July 1. School leaders expect it to be mid to late June before a state budget is finalized.

In the meantime, districts around the state had to notify certified teachers by April 15 if there was a chance they would be without a contract next school year.

Across the state, thousands of reduction-in-force notices were given out.

Some districts have begun rehiring a handful of teachers, but still, many teachers are facing the few remaining weeks of this school year with the understanding they will not be employed next year.

The Mesa district's leaders said they're planning for a budget cut between $30 million and $60 million, depending on the action by state lawmakers.

With kindergarten through 12th-grade education making up 42 percent of the state's budget, and the state facing a $3.3 billion revenue shortfall next fiscal year, several proposals out of the Capitol include cuts to school budgets.

Moore said Tuesday's vigil also is to support the more than 300 teachers - some on one-year-only contracts - who have been told they won't have jobs next school year. In addition, 76 classified contract positions are being eliminated, including 28 vacant or to-be-vacated positions that won't be filled, Janice Ramirez, assistant superintendent for human resources, told the Tribune in an e-mail.

"I'm hopeful we'll have a number of people there," Moore said of Tuesday's 6:30 p.m. event. "We're hoping to have signs of the sheer numbers of teachers and staff who have been given notice they may not have a job next year."

Calls to several state lawmakers Monday afternoon were not returned.

Mesa Unified has nearly 6,000 support employees. More than half of them work 29 hours or less a week.

Much of the Mesa district's support staff - secretaries, administrative assistants, janitorial workers and classrooms aides - are not on contracts like teachers. During Tuesday's meeting, the governing board will vote on how many to hire back for next school year. Ramirez said because of the lack of budget numbers from the state, the district is proposing to bring back fewer than in the past.

Those numbers may not be final, said Frank Hunter, president of the support personnel association. Like teachers, some may be hired back once a budget is finalized. Ramirez said, in fact, bus drivers will be rehired in the next few weeks.

With so much unknown, contracts issued by the Mesa district to teachers and other certified staff includes language that allows the district to adjust the salary, including a possible reduction, if deemed necessary, Moore said. Those contracts are due back to the district by June 12.

"What the district had to do from a legal point of view was include language in the individual teaching contracts that the amount (of pay) could be increased or decreased from the current level," Moore said. "My understanding is that they put that legal language in, as most districts have, to make sure as a budget is resolved they haven't tied their hands as far as individual contracts."

Moore said he could not give an indication on what's going to happen to salaries next year.

"We continue to communicate with the administration on the budget impacts, but we have not talked salaries yet," he said. "We're preparing our employees for (the fact that) anything can happen based on what the Legislature does. We are really trying to keep people's focus there."

Starting in June, East Valley teachers and other school employees will be at the Capitol voicing their concern over school budgets every Tuesday, Moore said. Other school district employees from around the state will show up the other four days of the week until a budget is resolved.