The discussion of where hundreds of students will go after their current schools in Tucson Unified School District close will be the subject at several meetings planned over the next few weeks.
The TUSD governing board approved the closure of eleven school last month to head off a multi-million dollar budget shortfall this summer.
The discussion that started on Tuesday night is where the students from five central and west side schools will go after the closures.
The boundaries will be redrawn to help these students find school close to where they've already been going. There will be meetings for the remaining schools that are designated to be in the north and southeast parts of the district.
The five schools discussed at Tuesday's meeting were Brichta Elementary, Hohokam Middle, Maxwell Middle, Menlo Park Elementary, and Wakefield Middle School. That's a total of about 16 hundred students who will be relocated.
But Maxwell will likely be redesigned as a K-8 school and keep some of these students.
Some parents have
considered sending their students to schools elsewhere in the district than
where it is proposing to send the students from the closed schools.
"I'm looking at
Davis, actually," said TUSD parent Barbara Trejo. "Because it's
a bilingual school, my daughter really wants to learn Spanish and being around
them would really help her do that."
Others are hoping that
Maxwell Middle School, when it changes to a K-8, does so immediately instead of
gradually. The district is discussing starting Maxwell as a K-6 and
adding seventh and eighth grades in the following years. But some parents
want that to start sooner so that they can keep their students in the school
and send their younger ones there at the same time.
"I really like
Maxwell and I would really like her to finish out at Maxwell," said TUSD
parent Elana Suzor. "So, my fingers are crossed that if they do, in
fact, have a K through 8, she will stay there."
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