On the morning of\u00a0 Dec. 9, Scottsdale Unified School District announced a celebratory Dec. 13 ribbon cutting on a project \u201cto transform the former Tonalea Elementary School site into the new 68th and Oak Street Athletic Facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
SUSD Superintendent Scott Menzel called the project \u201can amazing community asset,\u201d saying, \u201cThe revitalized site serves as both a gateway to the neighborhood and a hub for community connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with the holidays approaching, the mood was hardly joyful hours later \u2013 when the SUSD board decided the fate of two other elementary schools that may join Tonalea\u2019s path.<\/p>\n
Pima Elementary and Echo Canyon K-8 will close, after a 3-2 vote.<\/p>\n
Amy Carney and Carine Werner, both up for reelection in 2026,\u00a0 vehemently opposed votes to close the two schools.<\/p>\n
Board President Donna Lewis fought back tears as she explained her reasoning in support of Menzel\u2019s \u201cPhase I\u201d closure plan \u2013 then fought back calls from hecklers, asking for those in attendance to respect decorum.<\/p>\n
That did not stop some after Lewis made her vote to close the two schools as they shouted, \u201cResign!\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Pittinsky and Mike Sharkey, who successfully ran with Lewis on a group effort as board candidates last year, joined Lewis in supporting the Menzel plan.<\/p>\n
Few in the audience at Coronado High\u2019s auditorium seemed to like the idea of closing the two schools.<\/p>\n
This followed months of meetings on the idea \u2013 each one featuring emotional pleas that can be summed as \u201cdon\u2019t do it!\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, the board moved forward with the plan to \u201cclose and repurpose\u201d the two south-of-Camelback schools that are 4 miles apart.<\/p>\n
Carney, Werner and many in the crowd took little comfort in Menzel\u2019s presentation: \u201cNext Steps: Supporting Families and Staff Following Repurposing Decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
For nearly six months, Menzel has repeated that he does not want to close schools \u2013 but the district\u2019s financial outlook demands it.<\/p>\n
Like other Arizona districts, SUSD\u2019s funding is tied to enrollment.<\/p>\n
And, like many of its neighbors, Scottsdale Unified\u2019s student count is plunging with no \u201cbottom\u201d in sight.<\/p>\n
According to the district\u2019s tagline, \u201cWith around 20,000 students in our schools, the Scottsdale Unified School District has been a premier choice for pre-kindergarten through grade 12 public education for nearly 130 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district mainly serves families in Scottsdale, Phoenix, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills and Tempe.<\/p>\n
In similar fashion to other districts around the Valley, SUSD has increased marketing to try to attract families \u2013 yet is experiencing a decade-long, steady decline in enrollment.<\/p>\n
Demographer Rick Brammer of consultant Applied Economics recently told the SUSD board the district\u2019s \u201csubstantial\u201d enrollment decline is expected to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school-age population of the district is projected to decline by about 1,800 over the next 10 years,\u201d Brammer said.<\/p>\n
Menzel recently shared a plan with the board for \u201cPotential cost savings of more than $5 million through repurposing of multiple school sites over the next two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over months of meetings during which this data was shared, Werner, Carney and many audience members have pushed back, blasting the podcast-heavy marketing effort by the district and demanding a \u201cforensic audit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pima and Echo Canyon \u2013 the district\u2019s smallest schools \u2013 could be just the beginning, or Phase I.<\/p>\n
As Menzel stated,\u00a0 \u201cSchools under 300 students were identified for potential action in 2026-27 and those at or near 400 students were included on the Phase II repurposing list with planned discussions launching in January of 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six schools are on Menzel\u2019s \u201cproposed implementation of<\/p>\n
restructuring in 2027-28\u201d list:<\/p>\n
Menzel previously told the board \u201cthe administration will present one option that incorporates both Phase I and Phase II to illustrate how reducing our footprint (reducing the number of schools that are open) will help us increase our impact \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Dec. 9 meeting, Menzel gave a brief presentation on “Discussion of Pros and Cons of Accelerating or Maintaining the Phase II Timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel said one group was pushing for \u201cgetting it all done this year \u2026 to shorten the timeline of angst so that we could move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, the superintendent noted, \u201cMy recommendation is to continue on the two-year, two-phase policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree it\u2019s way too quick to consider (moving up the timeline) in academic year 26-27,\u201d Sharkey said.<\/p>\n
No board members asked for a faster timeline, with Werner commenting, \u201cThere\u2019s no way I would support that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the board agreed to Menzel\u2019s first phase in \u201cclosing and repurposing\u201d the two schools, what comes next is still to be decided.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no clear repurposing plan,\u201d Carney stated, asking for legal advice.<\/p>\n
Jennifer MacLennan, the board\u2019s legal adviser, responded that the future use of the two schools \u201cis a governing board decision.<\/p>\n
She said the two schools may be \u201cleased, sold, repurposed and used for other district purposes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe district\u2019s governing board,\u201d the lawyer said, \u201cwill have to authorize the next use of the properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board rationale<\/strong><\/p>\n Board members spoke to explain their votes on closing Pima and Echo Canyon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Excerpts of their pre-vote rationales.<\/p>\n Matt Pittinsky: Yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cVoting yes to close these schools in the upcoming budget is incredibly difficult. I also believe it is the right thing to do \u2026SUSD is nearly 25% smaller than we were 15 years ago, that is the equivalent of 10 elementary schools smaller \u2013 yet we have closed only one program in that timeframe. That is not sustainable, that is not responsible, and I’m afraid that is not protecting SUSD.\u201d<\/p>\n Carine Werner: No.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThese conversations should have happened a long time ago . . .\u00a0 so that families were not blindsided.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that (Pima and Echo Canyon families) have a viable product. And if marketing was different and we had more time, this process had been done in a proper orderly fashion, we probably wouldn’t be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n Amy Carney: No.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI believe the board should have first voted to even explore repurposing. They should have established a community advisory committee that included parents, teachers, staff and other key stakeholders, and developed a transparent long term plan before arriving at a decision to close or repurpose any school \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t have to be this way \u2026 I\u2019m constantly looking at ways we can save money. I\u2019m unheard.\u201d<\/p>\n Mike Sharkey: Yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhat I don’t want to do is to get us into this death spiral. We make a little few cuts. Those cuts make our product worse. That reduces enrollments, which forces us to make more cuts, and I think we’re very close to that point. I don’t want to exacerbate that.<\/p>\n \u201cI have people saying \u2018During your campaign, you promised to protect SUSD.\u2019 I\u2019m protecting SUSD.\u201d<\/p>\n Donna Lewis: Yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt is with a grieving heart for the circumstances and with a moral sense of fiduciary accountability that I vote to support this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the morning of\u00a0 Dec. 9, Scottsdale Unified School District announced a celebratory Dec. 13 ribbon cutting on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":446039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,165352,5643,1587,205365,205362,116635,205363,205364,1589,205367,151503,7600,25535,205366,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-446038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-amy-carney","10":"tag-arizona","11":"tag-az","12":"tag-board-president","13":"tag-donna-lewis","14":"tag-echo-canyon","15":"tag-matt-pittinsky","16":"tag-mike-sharkey","17":"tag-phoenix","18":"tag-rick-brammer","19":"tag-scott-menzel","20":"tag-scottsdale","21":"tag-scottsdale-unified-school-district","22":"tag-tonalea-elementary-school","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115716831992061064","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}