An emotional Tempe Union High School District’s Governing Board on Sept. 25 unanimously accepted a 24-member budget advisory committee recommendation to eliminate 40 school positions and 20 district office positions in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The cuts – which also include transferring four other administrative and four other school positions to lower paying jobs – comprise part of a three-pronged effort to close a projected $13.5 million budget hole created largely by a continuing enrollment decline.
That decline – exacerbated by a state-wide falling birthrate, skyrocketing housing costs that shut out families with children and charter and private school competition – is projected to reduce the district’s current pupil population by 24% to 9,518 students in 10 years…