MUSD board tables school closure

The MUSD school board tabled a decision Wednesday on shutting down Maricopa Wells Middle School following a lengthy public meeting in which more than 20 students, teachers and parents expressed opposition to the potential closure.

In a 3-1 vote, the Maricopa Unified School District board decided to delay a decision until its April 10 meeting. Most board members said they needed more time to make an informed decision. Board member Scott Bartle opposed the motion.

The closing of the middle school is estimated to save the district $542,000, a move that would help make up a projected $1 million deficit in the 2013-2014 district budgets.

Maricopa Wells math teacher Shannon Hull told the board keeping both middle schools – Maricopa Wells and Desert Wind – open is the only decision that puts the best interest of the students at the forefront.

“Send a message to our parents and our students that they matter, and what we want is the best for them,” Hull said.

Hull was among a large group of teachers from Maricopa Wells Middle School who began the public meeting by presenting a proposal to have the two middle schools remain open. The proposal requested taking away salary increases recommended by the district’s budget committee.

However, Superintendent Steve Chestnut said Thursday there was some confusion that came with this option.

“We are not at this time budgeting in salary increases for anybody,” Chestnut said.

The superintendent tried to make that clear to the board on Wednesday evening.

“If we want to add salary increases to anyone, we’d have to make further cuts to be able to pay for it,” he said.

Still, this proposal piqued the interest of board president Torri Anderson.

“I would like to see what the two small school model would look like,” Anderson said during the meeting. ”I don’t feel I have enough information to make a decision tonight on that. But I’m curious.”

Keeping both schools open is an option that’s still on the table, Chestnut explained, but the district would have to make reductions at both schools to the tune of $300,000 to $400,000, which would include cutting three to five teaching positions.

The teachers in favor of keeping both schools open presented various benefits for doing so, such as avoiding a disruption in the academic process that could result in lower test scores. It’s a major concern to the school district, considering both middle schools have received D grades from the Arizona State Board of Education.

But Chestnut told the board Wednesday he thinks a single junior high school with a class size of about 850 students could actually help the district. Chestnut cautioned this was his opinion, and that this thinking did not come with 100 percent certainty.

“I think it will be easier to focus on one school that needs to improve than it will be on two,” he said.

***ADVERTISEMENT***During the board’s discussion, member Leslie Carlyle-Burnett spoke of tradition, commenting how the school’s Panther mascot has been part of the community for five decades.

Board member Bartle, who did not explain his reasons tabling the decision, followed Carlyle-Burnett’s comments by telling the other members it’s important to leave emotions out of any future decision.

It’s about academic achievement and making sure the district has a balanced budget, Bartle said.

“The rest of that stuff will get figured out.”