Ready for another school year are, from left, Janetta Peck; her 8-year-old son, William Peck Jr.; Wrightstown Principal Jon Ben-Asher; and William Peck Sr.

Benjie Sanders / arizona daily star

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Bright lights are said to accompany near-death experiences.

When parents at tiny Wrightstown Elementary School got a reprieve after barely squeaking out of proposed school closures at the end of the last school year, the light they saw came in a deep shade of go-go green.

Wrightstown parents have had a tradition of involvement, staffing tutoring programs and organizing celebrations.

What is unusual, however, is the level of activism that has evolved since officials with the Tucson Unified School District put the highly performing East Side school on a list for mothballing, saying that with roughly 157 students at the close of last year, it was too small to be cost-effective.

A coalition of nearly 30 Wrightstown parents and community members raised money to fund their own television commercial. The ad, which cost about $4,500, ran on network and cable stations. It touted the benefits of the school's tightknit community, and its arts and physical education programs.

They created a glossy, bright-yellow postcard, which they mailed to 1,800 households, with a special focus on charter- and private-school parents.

They set up tables at area public libraries and at "big-box" discount stores, trying to convince more parents that Wrightstown, 8950 E. Wrightstown Road, is the right size and the right place for them.

They completed door-to-door campaigns, talking up the school to area families.

They were out in force Monday night at a school open house.

And that's just since they got a breather.

During the process itself, parents held rallies, waving placards at passing drivers. In true village style, some brought sandwiches to late-night workers. Others watched loads of kids to free up their partners in the effort.

Cyrus Miller, a self-deprecating man with two children at Wrightstown and a primary organizer, said coalition building didn't play to his strengths.

He barely knew how to use e-mail when he first realized he needed to get a communication tree up and running. And he has never been a confident public speaker, saying he was sure his hands shook the first time he spoke before district officials to save the school.

That's why he is convinced that the school coalition could be a model for parents elsewhere.

"If we can do this, anybody can do this," Miller said, then added jokingly: "Look what I was able to do — and I'm just a knucklehead."

Even as activism takes hold, the school still has big challenges — many, parents say, stemming from the perception that the school is threatened.

Solid enrollment figures won't come until after the first day of class on Monday, but only 100 students have told the school they plan to enroll. And as part of a way to close a budget shortfall, the district put a principal-sharing program in at some of its small schools, so Wrightstown's principal will split his time with Henry Elementary School.

Wrightstown parents are using the school's small size as a selling point, even as they try to increase it.

"The teachers know all the kids. Your kid is not just going to blend into the background here," said Larry Berry, who has had at least one child at the school for eight years.

Berry said there was an upside to the closure process: His group is even more effective after bonding with parents from the three other schools TUSD considered closing.

Parents at the South Side's Ochoa Elementary School, for example, brought on the political pressure, organizing a raucous protest the night of the closure vote.

"We told them: 'We're East Siders. We don't know how to do activism,' " Berry said.

In exchange, the Wrights- town coalition helped Ochoa members produce more professional reports. Then they learned more about effective financial analysis from activists for Midtown's Corbett Elementary School.

They've also learned the importance of being more politically aware, monitoring most district Governing Board meetings and checking the TUSD Web site almost daily for updates.

Wrightstown Principal Jon Ben-Asher, who is beginning his third year at the school, considers the parents strong partners in the promise of the school, but he said Governing Board members were likewise impressed.

"I've wondered if the parents had not been as involved as they were, and as passionate and as strategic as they were about fighting for the school, if we would have closed," Ben-Asher said. "I think it's a possibility."

Coalition members universally are less circumspect. "We would have been closed," Berry said without hesitation.

And there are no assurances that the district won't revisit school closures.

New Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen said her focus will be less on closing schools and more on helping them develop special niches to give parents more choice.

But, she said, a gradual closing of schools may be in the cards, depending on budget issues and long-term plans.

She said she doesn't anticipate considering school closures this year, but there are wild cards outside of her control, including an upcoming school board election.

Coalition members say they're ready to take up the fight again if they must.

"What I liked about this school at the beginning was that I felt that if something was wrong, everyone would stand up with me," Miller said. "And that's what happened. The parents have really held the school together."