Scottsdale Unified retreat sets ‘school of choice’ aim, prioritizes enrollment, attendance and teacher retention

Scottsdale Unified School District trustees and staff used a full-day retreat to frame reversing a decade-long enrollment decline as the board's top priority and to identify near-term actions to test strategies intended to reverse the trend.

Lee Jenkins, the retreat facilitator and former superintendent who led the session, told the board: "I think what you want in here as a board, as a priority is to stop the loss of enrollment." Jenkins guided the board through a fishbone exercise that the group used to map aims, barriers and possible actions.

The board, which coalesced quickly around the aim of becoming "the school of choice for Scottsdale families," discussed several levers staff and trustees said they can influence directly: improving academic outcomes and attendance, strengthening teacher retention, piloting student feedback systems, and reviewing school rightsizing and capacity to concentrate resources at fuller sites.

Why it matters: Trustees said enrollment affects staffing, budgets and program stability. During the meeting staff and the facilitator gave several quantitative anchors: district staff cited that roughly 56% of Scottsdale's school-age children currently attend the district (down from about 70% a decade ago) and that district facilities…