Ex-Menlo Park Elementary to serve kids with autism

A nonprofit organization will lease a closed TUSD campus on Tucson’s west side to operate a private school for children with autism.

A three-year lease with Intermountain Centers for Human Development to move into the former Menlo Park Elementary was approved by the Tucson Unified School District’s board on Tuesday night.

The company, a longtime special-needs service provider, has been occupying the old Howenstine High School for two years.

It asked TUSD to move its private school for children with autism to Menlo, a property that had previously been sought after by Prescott College.

Under the agreement, ICHD will pay the district $91,596 the first year, $122,128 the second year and $152,660 in the third year of the lease. The company will also pay for utilities.

ICHD will occupy only portions of the building, allowing TUSD joint use of the kitchen and cafeteria and community use of the library and two classrooms.

ICHD is prohibited from forming a charter school on the property, 1100 W. Fresno St., which is standard procedure in TUSD leases.

Though the TUSD Governing Board has been hesitant to lease facilities to potential competitors, it agreed to the lease citing a need for educational opportunities for children with autisism that many public and private schools are unable to provide.

In requesting the move, ICHD noted Menlo Park’s proximity to the freeway, its outdoor facilities and the size of the building.

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The organization said the layout at Howenstine, 555 S. Tucson Blvd., did not work well. And the speed of traffic on Tucson Boulevard proved to be dangerous to students.

Under the Howenstine three-year lease agreement, approved in 2013, ICHD was to pay more than $102,000 a year.

The Prescott College deal would have yielded far less money for TUSD. That proposal was to pay $35,000 a year plus $31,000 a year in in-kind services.

Though TUSD has said Prescott College did not complete submissions for the deal, the proposal was somewhat controversial given the college’s support of the now-defunct Mexican American Studies program. Just before the proposal was scheduled to go before the governing board, it was pulled in an effort to get more community feedback.

The Menlo Park Neighborhood Association at the time backed the campus being used by Prescott College, which would have allowed a section of the building to be utilized as a cultural center for Latino youth and elders.

The association supports the new lease deal, Gene Einfrank, its president, said Monday. The short-term lease gives the neighborhood an opportunity to reclaim the school, he said.

“The neighborhood is ultimately committed to seeing Menlo Park Elementary open again as a public school,” Einfrank said.

However, he acknowledged that among the reasons Menlo was closed was because the area lacked enough school-age kids. Einfrank said that’s changing with new growth in the area.

“In the scheme of things, having it as a public school is important because it bonds the community,” he said.