Foothills is seeking TUSD students
By Jamar Younger
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The Catalina Foothills School District is inviting families in the Tucson Unified School District to apply for open enrollment in an effort to boost the number of students in its schools.
The Foothills district sent about 43,000 postcard invitations last week to families living within TUSD's boundaries, inviting them to take part in the open-enrollment application process.
The district also revised its own open-enrollment policy in November to extend its application dates by about one month. Now, families will be able to submit open-enrollment applications until Feb. 29 instead of Jan. 31.
The school district has about 4,640 students, which is about 180 fewer than the district had last January, Superintendent Mary Kamerzell said.
TUSD has about 58,000 students.
Catalina Foothills is the second school district within the last few months to reach out to students living in TUSD, which is under a desegregation order.
The Tanque Verde Unified School District enrolled a TUSD student in October in an effort to challenge a TUSD Governing Board's policy that prevents students from enrolling in other districts based on the desegregation order.
TUSD students accepted by Catalina Foothills would be able to enroll for the 2008-09 school year.
"We think the conditions for open enrollment have changed for TUSD in light of their own internal change in September," Kamerzell said.
She was referring to another TUSD Governing Board policy that restricted transfers within that school district in order to maintain a racial balance at the schools that are under the desegregation order.
When the TUSD families apply for open enrollment, Catalina Foothills will send the list of applicants to TUSD at the beginning of March, Kamerzell said.
TUSD will have to provide Catalina Foothills with evidence that enrolling those applicants would violate the desegregation order.
"We are aware that some schools are under the desegregation order, so this is very school-specific," Kamerzell said.
TUSD is waiting for a federal judge to approve a report that outlines its efforts to bring racial balance to its schools, TUSD spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander said.
If the report is approved, the district will move one step closer to ending the desegregation order.
When families request a transfer out of TUSD, the district examines each case separately and makes a decision, Lander said.
Thirty-five TUSD schools are under desegregation orders, TUSD spokeswoman Karen Bynum said.
● Contact reporter Jamar Younger at 434-4076 or jyounger@azstarnet.com.
All content copyright © 1999-2008 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star and its wire services and suppliers and
may not be republished without permission. All rights reserved. Any copying, redistribution, or retransmission of any of the contents of this
service without the expressed written consent of Arizona Daily Star or AzStarNet is prohibited.
