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Cyrus Miller, Sonja Baker and Krista Anderson find out that their children's school, Wrightstown Elementary, will not be closed. But the TUSD Governing Board warned the happy crowd that the schools could all be back on another closure list next year amid dropping enrollment and budget deficits.
James Gregg / arizona daily star
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Tucson Region

4 targeted TUSD schools stay open, for now at least

Vote to shut Wrightstown fails; no action taken on other 3
By Rhonda Bodfield
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.30.2008
Hugs, high fives and thumbs-up signs were the order of the night after four elementary schools were saved from the chopping block at the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board meeting Tuesday.
But while the schools won a reprieve for now, it doesn't mean they've reached permanent safety.
Members of the TUSD board warned a jubilant crowd that the schools could be back on another closure list next year as the district continues to grapple with projected budget deficits triggered by a slide in student enrollment.
Ochoa, in the Downtown area, the East Side's Wrightstown and Midtown schools Rogers and Corbett were all targeted for closure in part because of low enrollment.
"You have to be happy with that vote," Steve Courter, president of the Tucson Education Association, said after the board mustered only two votes to close Wrightstown, the smallest of the four schools. "The next challenge is to start filling those schools."
After the attempt to close Wrightstown failed, the board took no action on the other schools.
A standing-room-only crowd, most of them parents and students, waited more than two hours in the crowded auditorium to hear the outcome. They erupted in applause when it became clear that Joel Ireland, the swing vote on the board, would not vote for any closures.
Ireland said he wouldn't vote to close Wrightstown because it made no sense to close a highly performing school. He based his decision, though, largely on last week's ruling by a federal judge that conditionally lifts the district's requirement to operate with racial and ethnic balance. If that occurs, the pool of schools that could be considered for closure would expand because they would lose their protection under the desegregation plan.
The board can take what it learned from this closure round, he said, and move forward with a more robust and equitable closure process for next year.
Board member Adelita Grijalva, who acknowledged she was leaning most toward closing Wrightstown, also cited the federal ruling as a reason to delay the vote, saying desegregation restrictions prevented the board from considering eight of the 19 schools with fewer than 300 enrolled students. "You have a year," she warned Wrightstown supporters.
Even knowing he was on the losing end of the vote, board member Bruce Burke pushed for the vote on Wrightstown, with an enrollment of roughly 160.
He was supported by board President Alex Rodriguez, who called TUSD "a district in crisis" and expressed disappointment that the other three members could not even agree to close the smallest of the district's underutilized schools.
"If we as a governing board fail to realign this school district to fiscal accountability, we will continue to do a disservice to our students," Rodriguez argued, adding that the district's cash reserves are at zero and further delay only exacerbates the problem.
He told concerned parents they have one final chance and urged them to recruit students to their schools. "The solution is very simple. Win our students back to TUSD and return this district to prominence."
Outgoing Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer took a rare public stance against the board majority, saying the district is already facing an $8.8 million deficit and some combination of closures was needed to address that shortfall, at least in part. "We're going backward here, folks, at a time when we have less than 60 days to come up with a budget."
Although staff members estimated the closure of all four schools would save $1.8 million, advocates for the schools questioned those numbers.
After the vote, Wrightstown Principal Jon Ben-Asher said the school is up to the challenge of luring students back. Parents are gearing up for a door-to-door campaign, and supporters recently wrapped up a commercial extolling the virtues of the school.
"To have a year is an amazing gift," he said, adding that the school is a perfect fit for "families who are looking for a kid-centered environment in an intimate setting where we know every one of our students."
Supporters, including about 80 people who rallied on behalf of Ochoa with bullhorns and signs, were universally ecstatic. "We had a voice, and they heard our voice," declared 17-year-old Keyla Ramirez, a Tucson High School senior whose nieces attend Ochoa.
Meanwhile, third-grader William Peck celebrated the fact he can continue going to Wrightstown. "I was very worried because I thought they might close my school and I didn't know the other school I'd have to go to," the 8-year-old said.
Sharon Crouse-Matlock, a 49-year-old library assistant at Corbett, also expressed relief on behalf of the neighborhood, as well as for the students, that the "anchor of the Corbett community" would remain open. "It's been hard on me personally, and it's been hard on the kids," she said, noting that a group of students had recently formed a crisis club at lunchtime in the library.
Debra Romero, 50, whose 8-year-old nephew, who attends Corbett, had been getting stomach pains from nerves ever since he heard his school might close, said she was pleased that the board sided with families.
● Contact reporter Rhonda Bodfield at 573-4118 or via e-mail at rbodfield@azstarnet.com.
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