Chandler district draft plan could lead to layoffs

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

Barb Mozdzen said she can’t remember having to discuss potential Chandler Unified teacher layoffs.

That’s what the 17-year CUSD Governing Board member and board vice president said toward the end of a Dec. 12 board planning meeting presentation about the district possibly needing to take reduction-in-force action, or RIF, ahead of the 2026-27 school year.

“Even in 2009, when so many things were happening with the economy, we always had a job for everyone,” Mozdzen said.

The session followed 2026-27 budget planning and staffing presentations that also had tough terms rarely mentioned in regular CUSD board business meetings.

District chief financial officer Lana Berry’s presentation on the budget included a “First Draft - Right-Sizing” for Chandler’s 2026-27 maintenance and override spending. M & O spending is Arizona school district’s main operating fund, from which nearly all staff salaries are paid.

The first draft proposes the district eliminate 79.15 teaching positions, along with 28.8 classified positions and four administrative positions.

District Superintendent Frank Narducci told the board he believes retirements and annual resignations will account for much of the “right-sizing,” helping CUSD administration only RIF-eliminate the positions absolutely necessary to make the 2026-27 budget balance.

“And even then, I think we would find that many, many teachers will be able to transfer and stay with us,” Narducci said.

Using position totals that aren’t whole numbers is common in budget discussions, as the district is simply talking math and balancing the budget at that stage. Also, not all teachers are necessarily “1.0” full-time employees.

But what’s uncommon, at least for CUSD, is to be discussing such a degree of right-sizing at all. The district grew nearly exponentially in enrollment for decades leading up to 2018-19, when slowing birth rates, city buildout, private and charter school proliferation, expensive housing and, eventually, the COVID-19 pandemic all contributed to CUSD’s enrollment slowly decreasing and is likely to continue to shrink.

The loss is coming primarily from the pre-K-3 grades, with each incoming kindergarten class smaller than the prior one. That’s led to several elementary schools operating well below capacity.

Among other efforts to retain or boost enrollment the right-sizing will affect total employment.

District Assistant Superintendent Chris Rossini presented at the planning meeting mostly on the procedural aspects of the RIF process. He began by pointing out that attorneys guide the process and that it’s important to distinguish a RIF action from simply not funding positions.

“The board’s decision to not fund some positions in a particular budget year, that’s a one-year budget decision,” Rossini said. “But RIF is a board policy decision that’s voted on publicly as its own item.”

Rossini explained that once the board takes the action of permanently eliminating positions, affected employees must be notified immediately, even though their jobs are safe for the rest of the current school year.

Rossini also pointed out that:

• Certificated (certified) employees who are either probationary or continuing teachers have rights to a position

• The RIF decision doesn’t include any type of appeal process.

• There are 175 CUSD teachers on “one-year contracts.” The district hired 168 teachers last year.

• The transfer process is involuntary in that teachers or other staff whose positions were RIF-eliminated can look to work elsewhere in the district.

• Any board elimination of an entire grade level is considered a RIF action.

Board Chair Patti Serrano said both the board and administrative team should consider pushing out a public message about what it’s considering in its right-sizing process, including the potential layoffs, in something like a schoolwide announcement.

“Remember that we talked about creating the headlines we want to see,” Serrano said.

After the initial online publication of this story, Chandler Unified issued this statement:

“What is occurring is CUSD is staffing to enrollment. Enrollment decline is 3% but the proposed staffing adjustment is 2.2%. By aligning staffing and budgets to current enrollment trends, we can continue to position CUSD as the premier district of choice, prioritize academic achievement and extracurricular excellence, protect class size ratios, and redirect new funding to competitive salaries and benefits. This approach also honors the values of our community by maintaining strong fiscal responsibility as good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”

Jason W. Brooks can be reached at jbrooks@iniusa.org. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as those meet our  Civility Guidelines.

Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.