Dozens of teachers who got pink slips on Friday and parents who support the teachers will gather in front of Tucson Unified School District headquarters, 1010 E. 10th St., at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The event will proceed a special TUSD governing board meeting at which board members will vote on the layoffs and discuss an early retirement buyout proposal. The meeting will start at 5:30, but the board will go into executive session immediately. The open session is expected to begin at 6.
Tucson Unified School Supporters and Voices of Education will hold a joint news conference at 4:30 to discuss the layoff notices and to announce a “new pink-slip postcard campaign” directed at Gov. Brewer and the Legislature.
The news conference will include comments from teachers who have received layoff notices and parents of TUSD students.
“We will also present facts to dispute state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne’s recent statements claiming there will only be a 2 percent cut to the education budget and accusing school districts of overreacting to the budget crisis by issuing layoff notices,” said TUSS leader Ann-Eve Pedersen.
Voices for Education is coordinating the pink-slip postcard campaign, which will ask people to send postcards that say “Don’t Pink Slip Our Future,” to Gov. Jan Brewer and lawmakers.
Postcards can be downloaded from the nonprofit organization’s Web site, www.voicesforeducation.org, or picked up weekdays at Voices for Education, 48 N. Tucson Blvd., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Pedersen said teachers and parents will show solidarity with those receiving layoff notices by wearing pink shirts and armbands on April 15, the deadline required by the state for all teachers to be notified if they are not going to be rehired for the following school year. They also will be “engaging in awareness-raising events at individual schools,” she added.