Dozens of students and parents urge Kyrene board to pause or reduce proposed closures at public hearing
Summary
At a Nov. 18 public hearing on proposed consolidations, students, parents, teachers and PTO leaders gave two-minute remarks urging the board to keep schools open—especially Mariposa and Manitas—ask for more data and consider a measured rollout instead of eight simultaneous closures.
Dozens of students, parents and staff used two-minute public-comment slots at a Nov. 18 Kyrene Elementary School District hearing to urge the governing board to pause or scale back proposed school closures, emphasizing community ties, program quality and the risk of accelerating enrollment loss.
Students from Mariposa gave emotional, short testimonies about teachers and programs. "Keep Mariposa open," said Liviana Clemency, a fourth grader who described how her teacher helped her learn to love reading and that Mariposa hosts the district’s National Elementary Honor Society chapter. Several other student speakers echoed that plea.
Parents and community members made three recurring requests: provide more school-by-school financial detail, consider closing fewer schools or phasing closures more slowly, and preserve high-utilization, inboundary schools. "We know declining enrollment is projected to result in a $7,000,000 budget shortfall in five years," Jordan Benish told the board, "but the proposal moves as if the district must solve for that entire shortfall immediately." Multiple speakers argued closing high-utilization schools such as Mariposa — which they said has about 75% utilization and roughly 66% inboundary students — would push families away rather than help the district.
Teachers' union and site leadership expressed the tradeoffs of alternatives: Delia Leiding, KA president, said keeping more schools open would require cuts elsewhere and risk reductions in assistant principals, interventionists or full-day kindergarten. Other commenters urged the board to publish clearer comparisons of scenarios that reach the same fiscal goal with fewer closures.
Speakers also raised programmatic concerns: parents warned that unique models and programs (a computer science academy at Mariposa; Manitas’ studio learning model and late bell schedule) would be difficult to replicate and that closures could require new capital or operational spending to re-create those services elsewhere.
Board response and next steps: the board did not vote. Staff reiterated they will publish the operational cost modeling and a scenario tool for the Dec. 2 meeting and that the earliest formal board action would be Dec. 16. The hearing concluded with reminders about statutory public-notice requirements for boundary changes and that voters must approve any sale or lease of district land before proceeds can be used (sale proceeds are capital-only; lease revenue offers greater operational flexibility).
The hearing drew broad turnout and repeated appeals to preserve community schools while demanding more transparent, school-level data before the board makes a final decision.
