The Tucson Unified School District holds the first of three community meetings tonight to get public input on the closure and consolidation of neighborhood schools.
TUSD district administrators will present realignment data showing why it needs to close up to 10 schools in the 88-school district, Southern Arizona’s largest.
No specific school closures or consolidations have been publicly identified yet.
The Monday, Sept. 21 meeting at Sahuaro High School is full, the district says, with all 300 in-person spots claimed. It will be livestreamed. The Wednesday, Sept. 23 meeting at Cholla High School has some seats available with an RSVP. The Saturday, Sept. 26 meeting from 9-11:30 a.m. was moved to Tucson High School is at its 200-person capacity but no livestream has been scheduled yet, the district says.
Child care for kids ages 3-12 will be provided along with food and translation services.
After an initial presentation by the district, participants will break into small groups for working sessions, TUSD spokesperson Karla Escamilla told Arizona Luminaria. She said the sessions are meant to generate feedback and gather concerns. That feedback will come back to the district and reconfiguration committee which will use it to make decisions, she said.
Meeting facilitators will work with the groups, including Bill de la Cruz, whose Denver-based consulting firm was hired by TUSD for $75,000 to facilitate the meetings, work on school consolidation and craft messaging to Tucson residents.
The 31 members of the committee consulting on the reconfiguration — including Tucson political figures, union leaders, business people and parents — are invited to the meeting, but not required to attend. That committee met last on Sept. 10.
District officials point to a range of long and short-term education trends to explain why schools need to close or consolidate: Declining enrollment due to lower Pima County birth rates and the use of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts and vouchers to homeschool or attend private schools, which has cost the district revenue.
Keeping half-full schools open, air conditioned and staffed is too costly, district administrators say. TUSD says some schools could be consolidated: For example, a K-5 school could become K-8. The district will also explore what to do with vacant school buildings and campuses.
TUSD’s enrollment is projected to see about a 4% decline from last year to about 35,000 students, according to Arizona Department of Education data.
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