teacher

elementary school teacher

high school teacher

special education teacher

bus driver

Tucson Unified School District

TUSD is a teacher/student oriented district. Keeping up with the latest trends in many areas of education makes it one of the most progressive in Arizona. It has thousands of teachers many of which are bilingual. 75% of classified employees are bilingual. The strongest area of all is the PLCs Professional Learning Communities where teachers are grouped into teams at grade level to meet and plan together weekly.  Every Wednesday is Profession Development for two hours for all teachers together where vast varieties of programatic and  new educational developments are taught. Magnet schools help with diversity and afford students and teachers with specific curriculum in which the teacher has a talent or love. University high is #7 in the United States sending students to the top universities in the nation. Universal preschool programs are similar to HeadStart serving 3-5 year olds in TUSD to prepare them for kindegarten. TUSD is still the only public school system in Arizona with all day kinder for every student. the  teachers union is the strongest of any state I have ever worked in(6) protecting the rights of teachers. Benefits in health,vision, dental and disability are some of the best in Tucson with a competitive salary system. paper work is the hardest task. Respect for teachers is high with a large HR department. Arizona state teacher retirement system is #2 in the US.

A typical day in the classroom at Tucson Unified School District TUSD was entering at 8:00am and sometimes not leaving until 7:00pm.  Also needed to work 2-4 hours on weekends.  Most of the time a 8:00am to 6:30pm job in order to fulfill all other teaching duties and computer work. 

TUSD offered good professional development on state required items such as curriculum and instruction.
They have an excellent Language Acquisition department dedicated to keeping Bilingual Education Alive and well in the few Dual Language classrooms available. The office managers at each of the schools I taught at were kind, dedicated and hard working people.
Workplace culture was good. Friendly co workers willing to help as I was willing to help them as well.
Hardest part of the job was the limited salary for the teaching experience and college level experience I have. Also not able to travel as required by my Native American Language non-profit organization. 

With an online full time teaching job I will be able to work from any city that I am at.

The most enjoyable part of the job was meeting, encouraging and seeing success in young students in their language development and overall educational success.

I very much enjoyed the idea of driving trucks and operating heavy equipment in this public sector setting.

Though the pay could be better (in all public sector positions), there were some perks to working here:  Almost always a 40-hour a week schedule, and almost always weekends off.  Plenty of paid time off, decent benefits, and a pace that was manageable.

Right now, with the shortage of qualified personnel to fill this position, it's a good time for someone to get their foot in the door of a decent blue-collar career in the public sector.

Unfortunately, there are issues that come with the TUSD Grounds Department:  Most of the equipment is old and in disrepair more often than not, there are some exhibited and tolerated unsafe practices, and the work culture can be very toxic. 

As I said, it's a good place to get your foot into the door of a decent public sector career, but my suggestion is to go in with your eyes open to the potential goings-on I mentioned, and to make plans that this may just be a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

As a one-to-one aide in the Tucson Unified School District, I experienced some well-run schools (Tucson High School, for example), fine teachers, and functionally-run classrooms. I also experienced things that should not be going on in public schools: assistant principals who seemed to enjoy messing with employees and shouldn't have been anywhere near children (Doolen Middle School--perhaps it's better now, if the two employees who shall remain nameless have left), unsafe working conditions, dysfunctional classrooms, harassment between students at the high school level that goes unchecked, and a district that does not know the parameters of either federal law, or their own governing board's policies, and so ends up kowtowing to manipulative parents.

After working for TUSD, I came to realize how a fish smells from the top down, so to speak, and chances are that, whenever a public school is actually educating kids, there's probably either an amazing principal or amazing teachers causing it to happen. It certainly isn't an accident, and it certainly isn't the norm. I can say that after experiencing education in a Waldorf school and seeing what happens when students are treated as human beings.

TUSD is a true example of workplace extremes. As a special education teacher, there's parts of the job that are just hard and you just have to be motivated to do it regardless of where you work. My principal is truly amazing, and I love being part of my site-based leadership team. 

District leadership is hit and miss. I have positive relationships with some truly dedicated and passionate administrators. And, I have worked with some who get paid double my salary to make dumb decisions and expect me and teachers like me to solve our own problems. 

Currently I am investigating other employment options. I am a highly qualified educator with both an undergrad and master's degree in the area of special education. And frankly, my compensation and benefits are not keeping up with rising cost of living, especially since I am expecting a new baby in April. 

TUSD's main issue is that its too big, has too many administrators,  and Arizona has awful funding for schools. 

I applied for a job here because a lot of people say that "TUSD" Tucson Unified School District, had a school that was the best in the district. So i got hired into that school and it seems 80% of teachers point more fingers than the kids do, putting blame on them no matter what the cause is. No classroom structure in the classes or management, I new what I was getting myself into. But i did not know it was this bad, worst thing about it is, that some teachers pick on the kids because of their disorder, just to put blame because of there classroom antics of the all the students not just one. An the staff in the office at least most of them has no clue what is going i think, that is my opinion i guess. The staff in the front office are rude and does not have no kind of customer service skills whatsoever. Their is hand chosen at the school where i can count my fingers that the staff has control, leadership and cares

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working with a diverse student base is great. Schools are located across the city.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Lack of resources, including but not limited to: supplies, disciplinary support, lack of critical staff, unnecessary demands on teacher's non-teaching time and incessant formal assessments all make working at TUSD very challenging. After 22 years of working for TUSD and earning a similar salary to a brand new educator is horrendous. Expectations from all levels to do more than is possible within the scope of a typical work week is very common.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Environment and culture vary greatly from site to site and depend entirely upon the leadership at a given site.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Rushed, demanding, very fast paced, many stakeholders to answer to.

Never a dull moment. We try to keep a routine for the students because they need and function best with it. Multi layered beauracrats. Money is the bottom line for the district.. Culture is very leftist. Critical Race Theory under the name of (CRC) Teachers Union etc and employee  wishes and parents wishes for their kids not important at school board level. Hardest part of the job is seriously understaffed  and battling group think . Free thinkers not welcome. Most important and enjoyable part of the job is the relationship and growth you experience with the students. It should always be about the students first. Not money. Not politics.

A typical day is always being prepared and be ready with extra material incase you need to go the next step or you have a teachable moment. I've learned that patience and alertness are your best alies with children. You have to be two steps ahead of them. Co-workers are great listeners and always willing to help you out with suggestions when you need them. Management is also there to support, help and give advice. The hardest part of my job is trying to figure out a kid who hasn't been able to progress in reading. I try different strategies and give extra help and sumetimes that doesn't help. The most enjoyable part of my job is spending time with children plus getting to know about them.

A typical day at work, as a substitute teacher, called for checking in at the beginning of the day to pick up work details, and then proceed to the room where the day would be spent with students. The absolute most enjoyable part of the day was when a connection was made with a student and they'd have their "aha moment." That always brought hope to me, in that the student might take that small spark and turn it into something greater. The most difficult part of the job was classroom management, as so many of the students, at all grade levels, showed a great disrespect to the substitute teacher, thinking they could get away with things that they'd not normally get away with. My co-workers were always extremely helpful in offering me any type of help I might need. They were always willing to share their knowledge and experiences.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 3 salaries reported	$46,133 per year
Elementary school teacher 7 salaries reported	$55,603 per year
High school teacher 3 salaries reported	$48,650 per year
Special education teacher 1 salary reported	$21.09 per hour
Bus driver 3 salaries reported	$23.05 per hour

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