Scottsdale Unified may close 2 or 3 more schools to cover $6.5M budget gap

PHOENIX – Two school closures weren’t enough. The Scottsdale Unified School District is now weighing whether to shutter two or three additional campuses to erase a remaining $6.5 million budget shortfall while planning how to repurpose empty schools.

In December, the board voted to close Pima and Echo Canyon schools, which saved the district more than $2.5 million. However, SUSD’s projected budget shortfall was around $9 million, which leaves $6.5 million to recover.

Currently, the district is considering closing two or three more schools to adjust for the budget.

Board member Amy Carney raised concerns about the timeline for more closures at Tuesday night’s governing board meeting.

“I would personally like to see closure as our last option, last resort. I’ve voiced that many times and I stand true to that that closure is a last option for us. But I would like information on when are the surveys going to go out,” she said of district surveys intended to measure parent and community input. “I’d like to request that that gets done much sooner.”

So far, 71% of families at Echo Canyon and 85% of families at Pima have registered their children at other schools in the district for next year. About 3.5% of families at those campuses will be leaving the district.

Staff at both schools are also in a transitional phase, with 32% of Echo Canyon and 37% of Pima teachers already receiving new placements. Others are still waiting.

Scottsdale Unified hears proposals for empty school tenants

The board also heard pitches from three potential tenants for the soon-to-be-vacant Echo Canyon building: Polaris Academy, a school for students on the autism spectrum; the Jones Gordon School, which serves students with dyslexia and ADHD; and the Arcadia Sports and Performance Complex, a nonprofit that would add courts and community programming.

Nathan Palmer, CEO and co-founder of Polaris Academy, a school for students on the autism spectrum, said his school serves Scottsdale children and has already leased space from Mesa schools to expand, giving them a leg up in experience. He said demand for specialized services is growing as autism diagnoses rise, now 1 in 30 children.

“As much as public [school] is asked to deliver education for all, not all pegs fit into all holes and there are children out there that are requiring more services that frankly, it would be unfair to ask the public education to serve,” he said.

Eric O’Connor with the nonprofit Arcadia Sports and Learning Foundation said his group’s proposal would create an Arcadia Sports and Performance Complex that would have sports courts and create a community space.

“We hope to integrate athletics, academic support, through on-site tutoring, mentoring and social enrichment opportunities available to student athletes and non-student athletes,” he explained.

The third option is the Jones Gordon School, which specializes in students with dyslexia, ADHD or other learning challenges.

Echo Canyon could also be home to an early learning center.

Pima Elementary could be repurposed as a special education public school and would also include the district’s food nutrition services headquarters.

The district has not said how much revenue the leases would generate, with the next meeting set for April 7.

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

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