The list of schools on the TUSD chopping block was not supposed to be released until tomorrow night, however; the schools were advised that they were on the “list” and that list was leaked by district insiders early today.
Brichta, Menlo Park, Cragin, Fort Lowell/Townsend, Schumaker, Hohokum, Corbett, Mission View, Wakefield, Hollinger, Warren, and Carson are at the top of the list to be closed by the Tucson Unified School District. Manzo, Borton, Sewell, Howenstine, Pueblo Gardens, Project More, Dunham, and Lyons are on the second list of schools to be closed in the very near future.
The District Governing Board is expecting a large turnout for its meeting tomorrow night as a result of the move, and has relocated the regularly scheduled meeting for 6:00 p.m., at Catalina High School to accommodate a larger crowd.
The closures are being pushed forward by the District’s superintendent Pedicone. Pedicone has ignored calls by the public and Board members to cut administration and expensive programs. At the last Governing Board meeting he advised the Board that if they did not close schools the money would “come out of M&O.”
His advice was seen as a threat by some district insiders, who are concerned that they are expected to promote a plan that disenfranchises the District’s most underserved students.
Governing Board member Michael Hicks is “extremely disappointed” over the administration’s plans and refusal to consider other options. “Dunham’s boundaries were just changed and now we are considering closing it? In some of schools we just conducted turnarounds and we are closing them? The International Baccalaureate program cost more than $800,000 a year and maybe two students end up with an IB diploma? Montessori programs and Emilio Reggio cost us a fortune. We need to get out of offering these expensive programs, and get back to teaching kids in their neighborhood schools. We come up with flash in the pan programs and I am not going to get rid of neighborhood schools in order to keep failing programs going.”
The district board last week approved a set of criteria for considering which schools to close and other measures to deal with the shortfall. The new criteria limits the number of closures to no more than 10 schools, however the District is pushing for a total of 30 schools to be closed in the near future.