Mohammad Noori enrolled at Catalina High School more than two years ago as an immigrant from Afghanistan.
He spoke only his native Dari — a Persian dialect.
He was overwhelmed. Yet, he was hopeful, he says.
School was a daily struggle.
Today, the junior ranks near the top of his class and wants to attend Harvard.
Mohammad attributes that turnaround to Catalina High and on Saturday morning he told his story at the final Tucson Unified School District school closure meeting
Although there is no public list of which schools TUSD aims to close or consolidate, Mohammad said he fears Catalina could be on the chopping block.
Mohammad made the case for why his school should stay open: It changed his life. The teachers, counselors and friends he encountered at the most multicultural school in TUSD — where at least 25 different languages are spoken — is where he now thrives.
“Catalina gave me the chance,” said Mohammad, the eldest of eight children who immigrated here with their parents. “I started from zero. Now. I want to go to Harvard.”
Mohammad was one of about a 100 people at Saturday’s meeting, where kids in shin guards accompanied parents after a soccer game, babies snuggled in strollers and a fluffy emotional support dog sat on the gym floor.
“I am sixth out of 113 in the class,” he said. “I want people to know that they want to keep Catalina High School. I think it is best to hear students.”
The meeting was the third in six days at schools throughout Tucson, where TUSD aimed to have conversations with families, staff and community members about closing and consolidating 10 of its 88 schools.
Participants, staff and governing board members contemplated their takeaways after the forums. Themes emerged, including gratitude for the process combined with skepticism.
“I’m still a little suspicious,” said Kirsten Cummins, a TUSD library associate. “But this is so much better than just begging at a board meeting.”
Before each meeting began, the district laid out why it needs to right-size: Declining enrollment and dropping revenue. Overall, 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 — a drop district officials attribute to lower Pima County birth rates and families using Empowerment Scholarship Accounts to homeschool or attend private schools, which has cost the district revenue.
About 300 people attended the three meetings last week, TUSD says. At each meeting, small groups with facilitators answered questions and discussed solutions to selling vacant buildings and what consolidations might look like. For example, a K-5 school could become K-8 or a middle and a high school could be combined.
Meetings began with data and statistics: TUSD has lost 3,700 students in the last five years. About 5,200 students within TUSD boundaries use Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. Those ESA students total a $29 million loss in available funding. The number of Kindergarteners is down 11% over last year.
On Saturday morning, as community members ate bagels and drank juice, facilitators maneuvered around tables, handing microphones to eager participants.
“I don’t care what my kid does after school, I just need him to go run, get outside,” one dad said. “Before and afterschool programs are key. How can we get them involved in K-6 sports?”
Each table discussed what to do with vacant school buildings after closures: Open community centers, suggested a table, house a Boys & Girls Club, said a parent. Sell them and don’t look back, added another table.
Consolidation was on the mind of a former TUSD student who spoke to the group.
“We talked about relocating the University High School campus to Catalina in 1984,” she told the participants. “Catalina has been underserved and underutilized. When are we ever going to take those (UHS) students and not let that brain drain leave TUSD?
“There’s lots of ideas, you just have to open your mind.”
That thinking inspired Mohammad to speak about what’s worked for him and what he wanted others to leave the meeting with.
“I told them all my story that two and half years ago when I came to the United States of America, I didn’t know English and it was a new system of school, culture, language. Everything was new,” he said.
“Life was very hard to me. And then I tried my best. I really did a lot of homework to learn English and I read a lot of books, saw a lot of movies and a lot of podcasts. TV shows, I watched a lot of them,” the 18-year-old said. “My first year that I went to school, that was very, very hard. I didn’t know how to speak English and I got a lot of bad grades. This school makes me reach my goals now.”
Four takeaways from the week of community meetings:
- The community cares: “We’ve learned over the last week, the community really cares about what’s happening, especially with their students,” said Bill de la Rosa, whose Denver-based consulting company helped plan and facilitate the meetings and will next compile data based on the feedback. “I think there’s an awareness that something has to be done with the resources that the district has, people want to see more of those targeted dollars go to the students or programs. And whatever the building configuration is, upgrading the buildings that are here so that they are nice, no leaky roof or holes in the portables. And people realize that with over 80 buildings and a small number of kids in a lot of those buildings, that even developing programs may not be sustainable. And if you put a new program into a building that has a leaky roof — or doesn’t have a principal, so there was a track that has been in disrepair for years — that’s not very attractive when we are looking to bring students back into the district. And so I think what this is doing is getting people to understand the urgency of what needs to be done.”
- The discourse brought gratitude: It was a relief to feel heard and to listen to others, TUSD central library associate Kirsten Cummins, said after Saturday’s meeting. Cummins, who attended two meetings last week, worked at the now-closed Hohokam Middle School in 2016 when it closed. “That round of closures was a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff,” she said. “The board wanted some feedback then, but it wasn’t like this. And so when I found out they wanted something from people. I was like, ‘I’m there.’ So I think overall, I feel gratitude. I’m mean, I’m still a little suspicious. But this is so much better than just begging at a board meeting.”
- The timeline is tight: Schools designated for closure or consolidation will be named publicly by mid-October after one-on-one meetings with principals, staff and families. Online public comment will be solicited and the Governing Board will study plans and ask questions. A public hearing is Nov. 10 and the board will vote on the proposal at its Dec. 8 meeting. The discussion will center around a 10-school package in two phases, TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said last week. Phase one includes some schools in the 2027-28 school year and phase two the following year.
- Questions remain: “Are we getting to the heart of what’s needed?” asked board member Jennifer Eckstrom. After attending two of the three meetings in the last week, Eckstrom says she still needs to see how school closures and consolidations would make the district better. “We want to provide better services. How? I have asked for more data. How much money did we save when we last closed schools? What is the message?”
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