The Tucson Unified School District is considering expanding grade offerings at five schools in an effort to keep and attract students.
Borman, Collier, Drachman, Fruchthendler and Sabino could have grade levels added to their campuses in a proposal the TUSD Governing Board is set to consider Tuesday.
The grade expansions would result in renovation and transportation costs. TUSD estimates it would amount to about $1.5 million if all the school changes are approved.
The plan calls for adding a grade level per year at each school. TUSD says that would allow most of the additional cost to be covered through increased enrollment.
Should the board approve the plan on Tuesday, the changes would still need to be approved by the federal court overseeing the districtβs desegregation efforts.
The Latino plaintiffs in the case have opposed the plans. They say TUSD has been tasked with increasing racial integration and none of the grade expansions β with the possible exception of Drachman β is expected to do that. Thatβs because the TUSD plan is looking to recruit and retain Anglo students to schools that are already mostly Anglo.
βThe general thrust of the grade reconfiguration proposals is to perpetuate the nonintegration at these schools,β the plaintiffs said.
TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez, however, argues that the northeast-side schools targeted in the plan are gaining more minority children in the entry grade levels. Failing to retain the Anglo population will one day result in the schools becoming minority-majority campuses, he said.
Thatβs the reasoning TUSD cites in making a second go at creating a K-6 at Fruchthendler to feed into a 7-12 school at Sabino. It would allow families to bypass Magee Middle School, which a number of Fruchthendler parents described as inadequate.
Rather than send their kids to Magee, many Fruchthendler families have opted to enroll them at Basis charter school or in the Catalina Foothills School District.
The first attempt by TUSD was rejected by the court, which cited concerns that the βhonors pipelineβ catered mostly to white students.
In response, TUSD has proposed the use of an βexpress busβ for minority children who live outside Fruchthendlerβs boundaries. The bus, which would cost $64,000, would pick students up at a central location about 35 minutes away from the Sabino Canyon area school, 7470 E. Cloud Road.
Also hoping to get in on the pipeline is nearby Collier Elementary, 3900 N. Bear Canyon Road, which would also add sixth grade and split the cost of the express bus with Fruchthendler.
Because the proposals would likely have a negative impact on Magee, TUSD has offered to implement a college preparation program to attract students to the middle school. The district also has pitched the idea of Magee partnering with Sahuaro High School to offer advanced placement or dual-credit courses. There is also the possibility of creating a science, technology, engineering and math program at Collier that could encourage students to feed into Magee, home of the popular Odyssey of the Mind club.
Though the district says that such offerings could attract Latino students to Magee, 8300 E. Speedway, and improve integration, there is no mention in the plan of how those students would get to the school.
An express bus has also been proposed for use by Sabino. In revising the Sabino proposal for reconsideration, TUSD also addressed concerns about having seventh-graders on campus with seniors.
Sabino, 5000 N. Bowes Road, has space to place the younger students in separate wings because its enrollment is just over half its capacity. And the district has considered adding three to four buses to keep the younger students separated from the high schoolers. The cost to do so would be $194,000 to $259,000.
TUSD and Sabino officials have argued that the mixing of ages is actually a benefit.
NEW PROPOSALS
Borman Elementary School, on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, is looking to go from a K-5 campus to a K-8, allowing TUSD to compete for middle-schoolers on base.
According to TUSD, those students are successfully recruited by Sonoran Science Academy, which is also on base. It enrolls about 90 percent of sixth- through eighth-graders living on base, the district says. The Vail School District also buses about 100 students out of D-M daily.
Though Roberts/Naylor K-8 is Bormanβs designated feeder school, few Borman students elect to enroll there after fifth grade. Nonetheless, TUSD has proposed developing a college-prep program at Roberts/Naylor, 1701 S. Columbus Boulevard, to boost its attractiveness to families.
The cost of the grade reconfiguration at Borman, 6630 E. Lightning Drive, would include $60,000 to renovate two classrooms in the short term. As much as $750,000 could be needed long term to add two classrooms and a locker room if enrollment exceeds expectations.
Drachman Montessori Magnet School, 1085 S. 10th Ave., also would like to convert to a K-8 model.
Parents at Drachman, which currently serves grades K-6, have expressed interest in adding the two grades. TUSD believes that retaining students longer would lead to better integration for the campus.
None of TUSDβs middle schools is based on the Montessori method of learning. That means it loses students to charter schools that offer the K-8 option, officials say.
TUSD would also seek to add an express bus from the east side to the downtown area to take students to Drachman and Roskruge, 501 E. Sixth Street, as well.
Though Drachman would not need any immediate renovations, TUSD noted it would need to spend about $20,000 to accommodate science instruction, which includes one mobile lab table.
Long term, it could cost $250,000 to $400,000 to renovate the PE changing rooms as well as two to four classrooms.
Finally, it could cost as much as $180,000 to add three to four afternoon routes to bus students, and $64,000 for the east-side express bus.
