SCOTTSDALE — Parents, students and a state lawmaker spoke out against the proposed closure of two Scottsdale schools during a hearing Thursday night.

The Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Governing Board listened to community members for 90 minutes as they presented alternative solutions and reasons why the Pima Elementary School and Echo Canyon should remain open.

The district is considering closing the two Scottsdale schools due to low enrollment.

The board could not respond to comments during Thursday’s hearing. The final vote is scheduled for Dec. 9.

Ainsley, a fourth grader at Pima, said her classmates try not to talk about the potential closure.

“Pima shouldn’t close down because so many families … put their hard work into it, and them closing it is crushing all of that and it’s ruining their dreams of being whatever they want to be. It’s heartbreaking and it’s something that shouldn’t be happening,” she said.

Lawmaker thinks more could be done to keep Scottsdale schools open

Republican state Rep. Matt Gress spoke at the hearing, calling on the governing board to come up with other options.

“It appears that there was one option — which is just closure — versus redesign, consolidation, selling buildings, leasing properties to keep schools intact. So, I really do think that there’s more work to be done on getting to the final resolution. I’m very sympathetic to the demographic challenges,” he said.

Multiple generations of alumni spoke about the culture of Pima, which serves students through sixth grade at Osborn and Granite Reef roads, and a community that would be destroyed if it was to close.

Kathy-Brie Tompkins, a Pima alum with a child there, is looking for ways to keep the school open.

“I hope they listen to how strong the Pima community is and really consider what a decision like this would mean if they were to close Pima, which is the only A-rated school in the Coronado Learning Community,” she explained.

Blaire Wilkins, who has a first grader and an eighth grader at Echo Canyon, a K-8 school on 62nd Street near Camelback Road, called the closure announcement a “slap in the face”.

During her comments to the board, Wilkins spoke about SUSD’s recommendation for parents at Echo Canyon to move their children to Tavan Elementary instead of Hopi Elementary, a school that is much closer to Echo Canyon. She suggested that is because both Echo Canyon and Tavan are Title 1 schools, which receive federal support based on poverty levels.

“The Title 1 designation never really meant anything to us. … But once we were forced to kind of look beyond Echo Canyon, you start to hear and see and recognize what that means across the district and just the different populations, and I think it was really the distinction between Hopi and Echo Canyon, and then Tavan is being like the next recommendation. Just like I said, it smelled bad,” she said.

You can watch a recording of the meeting here.

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