On Feb. 4, the school’s superintendent announced that a vote could close down several schools in the Phoenix Elementary School District.
Dr. Deborah Gonzales, the district superintendent, announced that Dunbar Elementary School and Heard Elementary School would be the schools to close if voted for.
“The declining enrollment in our district and the continued levels of staffing do put us in jeopardy.” Gonzales said.
In addition to declining enrollment, Dunbar Elementary, which is located on Grant Street, faces issues such as a limited amount of teachers per grade level and limited opportunity for teacher collaboration, and closing the schools would provide opportunity to generate revenue for the school and community.
Meanwhile, Heard Elementary School, on Thomas Road, is experiencing a consistently-declining condition of its facility and student academic performance, due to its proximity to neighboring Phoenix #1 school.
Closing the schools as Gonzales mentioned would allow Phoenix Elementary School District to make budget cuts and take advantage of new lease opportunities, saving the district roughly $7.3 million.
To keep Dunbar and Heard Elementary School open, the district would need to cut general education preschool program, before and after school programs including sports, eliminate the district’s newcomer program, cut student support positions, reduce district and school-based operation staff, and staff to the highest student-to-teacher ratio including specials while taking advantage of new lease opportunities. The estimated savings for this plan would be around $15 million.
“School closures harm communities and can further decrease enrollment and academic achievements,” Board member Alicia Vink stated. “I am imploring our community as well as state and federal leaders to get involved and show up to support our public schools.”
Ultimately, district enrollment is overall declining by approximately 14%, with 5,070 students enrolled for the 2024-2025 school year. In the next eight years, there will only be around 4,000 remaining students in the district. will be approximately 4,000, compared to 7,122 in the 2015-2016 school year
Many parents, teachers, and other members of the community came to the meeting to discuss the fates of the two Elementary school.
“Please continue to show up at the next ones,” Jessica Bueno, president of the Phoenix Elementary School District, said. “We completely sympathize…just know that this is not an easy situation for us to be in.”
As of now, there has been no final decision made, but there is around a month left of meetings for the District and the community to come to a conclusion
“I do not know what decisions we will have to make for Phoenix El in the coming week, but I do know that if our community doesn’t mobilize now, public education may not survive.” Vink said.
Edited by Shi Bradley
