Large East Valley school district cutting 90 jobs, with more expected
The Chandler Unified School District is cutting dozens of jobs for the 2026-27 school year as it works to close a $12 million budget deficit.
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PHOENIX – One of the largest public school districts in Arizona is cutting dozens of jobs as it works to close a $12 million budget gap.
The Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) Governing Board authorized the loss of about 90 positions for the 2026-27 school year during a meeting Wednesday night.
It was part of a proposal to trim a total of over 120 jobs.
The approved reductions and cuts to administration, dean and coaching roles are designed to save up to $10 million.
About 30 more positions, made up of media and tech specialists, could be cut at an upcoming meeting to make up the remaining $2 million.
Like many Arizona districts, Chandler Unified enrollment is shrinking
CUSD serves about 40,000 East Valley students from pre-K to 12th grade at nearly 50 schools. But like many Valley public school districts, it is facing a declining enrollment trend, which impacts state funding levels.
Stephanie Ingersoll, CUSD’s executive director for communications, said that in addition to saving money, the board’s cuts could balance the staff with the current 3% enrollment decline.
“We are graduating more kids than we are bringing in at the elementary level, and this has been ongoing. And like many organizations, we are looking at realigning, reorganizing, rightsizing our staffing levels to match that enrollment,” she said.
The district currently has 5,430 employees. Ingersoll said the cuts may not impact 90 people due to staff leaving the district and creating vacancies that won’t be filled.
The Chandler Education Association has been trying to protect jobs at the district. Over 3,300 people signed a petition against the cuts.
Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.
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Comments
6 Comments
I know several people who are accessing those funds, and all of them made the decision to send their kids to private school before those funds were available. The funds are used to partially subsidize their decision to go private, and that results in less funding for public schools.
For me the bigger question would be how many low income parents are choosing to send their kids to private school with partial cost offset via ESA because the local school is unacceptable. My wild guess is very few.
I'd like a deeper analysis into the WHY'S of the declining enrollment. The metro area population keeps growing, so why are enrollments going the other direction? Demographics? I suspect the true culprit is ESA, but not sure. If that's the case then that program is definitely lowering the quality of education for the students who remain in public schools, which will be predominately the ones whose parents can't afford to send them to private school.
This is going to be a real "Lord of the Flies" world once all these homeschooled kids reach adulthood with zero social interaction skills.