Readers favor closing Maricopa Wells Middle School

In a poll asking InMaricopa.com readers about closing a middle school to help fix the Maricopa Unified School District’s projected $1 million gap in the 2013-2014 budget, 35 percent, or 104 out of 293 respondents favored closing Maricopa Wells Middle School.

Readers seem in line with the district’s current thinking. According to the agenda posted for Wednesday’s meeting, the governing board is scheduled to talk about closing Maricopa Wells over closing Desert Wind Middle School.

The board could approve a date and time for a public hearing on the matter, which would come at least 10 days after the public is notified of the hearing.

Closing a middle school could save the district $542,000.

The district also is scheduled to vote next week on offering free half-day kindergarten coupled with a tuition-based half day. The savings from ending free full-day kindergarten is estimated to be $480,000.

In the poll on closing a middle school, 29 percent of respondents favored closing Desert Wind Middle School, 17 percent supported keeping both middle school opens, and 18 percent did not favor any of the options as a way to help ease the budget deficit.

In February, the school board voted to retain sixth-graders at the elementary school level, paving the way to create a junior high school system.

The school board meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the district office, 44150 W. Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway. 

For more information on these agenda items and others click here to get to the meeting of your choice, then click on “print agenda” and then go to “detailed agenda.”