The Tucson Unified School District is considering consolidating, reconfiguring, or closing as many as 6 to 10 schools over the next few years as it faces declining enrollment and growing financial pressure.
TUSD has seen enrollment drop for years, with district officials pointing to declining birth rates and school vouchers from charter schools as partial causes. Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said the district is launching a community engagement plan to determine the best path forward.
“They are factors that have contributed to a pretty sizable enrollment loss that is going to continue on into the future,” Trujillo stated. “So we’re forced to reimagine ourselves, and that’s why we are here. How can we reconfigure ourselves in a way where we can become more competitive, where we can position ourselves to grow?”
The affected schools could potentially face 3 different scenarios:
- Reconfiguration: A restructuring of the school and its resources. This could potentially mean grade removal or downsizing (EX: K-8 School downsized to K-5)
- Consolidation: Two or more schools are merged, with students being fed into the merged school, along with resources allocated to the new merged school.
- Closure: The district deems that a school cannot continue running at its current capacity, with no other alternatives to keep it running, and decides to close operations.
This is not the first time TUSD has faced school closures. The district closed 9 campuses in 2010 and 11 schools in 2012…