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Tempe Union student urges board to keep Innovation Center amid budget, enrollment concerns
Summary
A Tempe Union student told the governing board the district’s Innovation Center should be preserved or given more time and funding, saying the program fosters project-based learning and student engagement; the board did not take formal action at the meeting.
A student speaker pleaded with the Tempe Union High School District governing board to maintain the district’s Innovation Center or allow it more time and funding rather than closing it.
Isabella Parr Longoria told the board the Innovation Center (IC) emphasizes project-based learning and close teacher–student relationships that helped her and peers grow. "The innovation center set out to do the very same thing on a wider scale," she said, urging board members not to end the program after three years of development and one year of operation.
In her roughly three-minute public comment, Parr Longoria said she understood the board was considering shutting the IC because of "budget cuts and low enrollment rates district wide," and warned that transplanting IC practices into traditional classrooms requires time, resources and careful planning: "Changing a system that has gone basically unchanged for over 100 years takes more than 1, 2, or 3 years." She recommended either keeping the IC running or giving it proper time and funding to develop before attempting districtwide adoption.
The board did not vote on the Innovation Center during the meeting. Parr Longoria’s remarks were presented during the public-comment period; the board chair reminded the public that members may not act on items not on the agenda and that staff could be directed to study matters or schedule them for a future meeting.
What happens next: The meeting closed public comment and moved on to the consent agenda and other items; no formal direction or vote about the Innovation Center was recorded in open session at this meeting.
