The Tucson Unified School District will discuss its plan for closing and consolidating schools amid declining enrollment at its Aug. 25 Governing Board meeting.
Clarifying details should come in the board meeting presentation called “Reimagining Our Schools Together — A Community Engagement Plan for Elements of the Enrollment Stabilization Program,” according to TUSD’s agenda. The item is second-to-last on the agenda and the meetings typically run from 5:30-10 p.m.
Community meetings
• Monday, Sept. 21, Palo Verde High School, 6-8:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, Sept. 23, Cholla High School, 4-6:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Sept. 26, Catalina High School, 9-11:30 a.m.
TUSD has not yet publicly identified the schools for closure, the district told Arizona Luminaria on Monday afternoon.
Last spring, the district said it would name the schools in August.
Southern Arizona’s largest school district with 88 schools is projected to see about a 4% decline from last year to about 35,000 students, according to Arizona Department of Education data.
The falling numbers mean a drop in funding and can force districts to close neighborhood schools or right-size their districts. For TUSD, that’s about an $8 million loss in per-pupil spending, the district says.
Administrators say declining enrollment is due to the rise in families using Arizona’s vouchers and Empowerment Scholarship Accounts to homeschool or attend private schools as well as declining birth rates in Pima County.
The financial loss contributed to TUSD being named a high financial risk — one of nine school districts statewide — by the Arizona Auditor General’s office last spring. Declining enrollment, the end of COVID relief money, and rising operating costs are the biggest factors, the auditors say. The district says it needs to cut $25 million by 2030.
TUSD was last labeled high financial risk in December 2020 — the first year the report was done. It moved off the most-vulnerable list the following year. Of the 207 audited this year, twice as many districts appeared in the highest-risk category as last year.
The district, which started in 1867, is trying to boost its numbers through ad campaigns, directly reaching out to families who have left and creating a community liaison pilot program to improve student attendance. It will also soon offer an expanded, tuition-based exceptional education program to students in other districts.
“We are in a do-or-die struggle for enrollment,” TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said last December. “We have to think big and we have to fire big.”
Part of that vision is playing to district strengths, including its mariachi and other music programs. Expanding these programs would invite more students into the district and ideally keep them through graduation, Trujillo said earlier this year.
The current decline mirrors the last quarter-century. TUSD data shows just over 60,000 students in 2000. By 2015, it was about 48,000.
TUSD schools with the largest percentage enrollment decline over the last three fiscal years include: Booth Fickett Math/Science Magnet, Cragin Elementary and Sahuaro High School, according to Arizona Department of Education data.
“Declining enrollment has the single-biggest impact on our bottom line,” TUSD Chief Financial Officer Ricky Hernández told the board earlier this year.
The number of closed schools is not clear. But the district should close 17 schools, board member Val Romero told Channel 13 News last spring.
TUSD closed 10 elementary and middle schools and one high school in 2012. Cragin, Manzo and Sewell Elementary schools were all on that list and spared 14 years ago.
TUSD began formally discussing the required closure process last April with a seven-month plan to explore, research and examine new district boundaries and evaluate which schools could be closed and consolidated due to declining enrollment. That April plan said August would be the first time the public sees which schools are being considered for closure. December is when the strategic consolidation plan goes to the board.
The numbers confirm what metro-area public school districts across Arizona say: They are losing students.
Last fall, Amphitheater Public Schools closed four elementary schools. Data from the Arizona Department of Education indicates the six largest school districts in Pima County, three in the metro Tucson area — Amphi, TUSD and Sunnyside have lost students over the last five years.
Three other suburban districts — Marana, Sahuarita and Vail — have all grown.
The Aug. 25 board presentation will be by Bill De La Cruz of De La Cruz Leadership Solutions, a national consulting and executive coaching firm based in Denver. De La Cruz is a former school board president and former director of equity and inclusion for Denver Public Schools. He is also an author and a mediator, according to his firm’s website.
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