Gilbert, Balsz school districts vote to close schools before 2026-27 year

PHOENIX – The Gilbert Public Schools (GPS) governing board unanimously approved the closure of Pioneer Elementary School Tuesday night, shutting the school down before the 2026-27 school year.

Pioneer is located at Baseline and Higley roads and currently has 268 students enrolled, down from 448 in 2021-22, according to the district. Due to building size, there is only an average of seven students per classroom at the school.

The students at Pioneer will be split up between Carol Rae Ranch, Val Vista Lakes and Harris elementary schools with boundaries redrawn. Those three schools will have between 400 and 700 students enrolled with the influx of Pioneer students.

The district currently serves around 32,000 students.

Jason Martin, executive director of elementary education for GPS, explained there are more factors at play.

“Birth rate, cost of living or affordability of homes in our school district boundaries, as well as school choice and competition, which over the last few years, as we’ve talked about, not only do we have charter schools, but we also now have the ESA vouchers, too, that are competing,” he said.

GPS board member Jill Humphreys got emotional during the vote, explaining how hard it was to close a neighborhood school.

“In this state in Arizona, we talk a lot about school choice. But I wish we would talk more about choice schools… I see Pioneer as a choice school,” Humphreys said. “They’ve done great things.”

To keep Pioneer running, the district would have also had to repair the physical school building before the next academic year, costing over $2 million in renovations. There are no current plans for the Pioneer Elementary School building.

Pioneer staff will be given priority for open positions in the district.

GPS Superintendent Shane McCord said the decision was difficult, but the next steps will be to support the community through the transition of boundaries.

“We will do everything we can to support those students and those staff members as they transition to other schools within our community,” McCord said. “And we will make sure that the history of Pioneer is kept intact.”

Other school closure coming outside of Gilbert Public Schools

The Balsz School District in Phoenix is also shutting down a campus after this school year, but the governing board has not yet decided which of its K-5 schools to close.

The board voted 3-2 on Jan. 20 to shut down a school and let go of 30 employees to close a $3 million gap needed for the district to operate in the 2026-27 school year. The other option was to keep the school open but let go of around 50 employees.

Balsz Superintendent George Barnes said the decision was a result of the community weighing in.

“I think the initial conversation wasn’t so much about how many staff, it was which staff, right? So, the community spoke very loudly that they didn’t want to lose art. They didn’t want to lose music,” Barnes said.

The three schools that are being considered for closure are Griffith Elementary School (McDowell Road and 44th Street), Brunson-Lee Elementary School (McDowell Road and 52nd Street) and David Crockett Elementary School (Van Buren Street and 32nd Street).

The Balsz School District governing board will discuss which school to close during an upcoming study session before a final vote is made on Feb. 17.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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