The fates of two TUSD schools at risk of losing their magnet statuses are nearly sealed, according to a recent filing in the districtβs decades-old desegregation case.
The caseβs special master Willis Hawley recommended on Jan. 23 that one of the schools, Roskruge Bilingual K-8, lose its magnet status and transition into an open enrollment-only, two-way dual-language school.
βThe district is proposing that the school lose its magnet status, and the Special Master concurs,β Hawley wrote. The idea of transitioning Roskruge into a two-way, dual-language school without a neighborhood boundary came up when TUSD was awarded partial unitary status in September, according to court records.
Though Roskruge will lose its magnet classification, if the judge presiding over the case concurs with the special master, it wouldnβt lose its current desegregation funding, TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said at a recent public meeting about the desegregation case.
Both the special master and TUSD have said the school will retain some of the funding, but they havenβt specified how much or why.
Magnet programs have historically received the majority of TUSDβs desegregation funding, and it is uncertain why Roskruge would be able to retain the funding if it is no longer a magnet program.
Retaining the funding is essential for Roskruge, should it transition into an open-enrollment, dual-language school, Hawley wrote in his report. In magnet schools, that funding traditionally supports the cost of extra teaching staff, support staff and transportation for students who live outside the school boundary.
The caseβs Latino plaintiffs donβt think Roskruge should lose its magnet status, according to Sylvia Campoy, the plaintiffsβ representative.
βI can give you a list of reasons why there should be opposition to it,β Campoy said.
ANOTHER NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL LOST
The Latino plaintiffs primarily want Roskruge to keep its magnet and neighborhood boundary because otherwise, the students living in that boundary will lose their home school for the third time since the district was placed under a desegregation order in 1974, Campoy said.
Many of the students who would be affected by the loss of Roskruge as their neighborhood school identify as Native American, she added.
These students, who are Yaqui and live in Old Pascua off West Grant and North Oracle roads, have had to move home schools due to school closures twice. The students were re-assigned to Roskruge most recently in 2010, Campoy said, after Richey Elementary closed.
The students shouldnβt have to lose their home school again, she added.
βWhether itβs a dozen kids, 80 kids or 50 kids, their neighborhood should not be changed,β Campoy said. βWe view bouncing students around the district because the district is changing programs, or changing boundaries or closing down schools as being very unfair to the student population.β
To offset another school loss, Hawley recommended TUSD give kindergarten through first-grade students and current Roskruge students priority admission to the school, once it transitions.
It is uncertain, at this time, whether TUSD will heed the special masterβs recommendation, and neither Hawley nor the district has specified to which school students living in the current Roskruge boundary could be re-assigned.
WHEN A NEIGHBORHOOD LOSES ITS SCHOOL
When a neighborhood loses its designated public school to closure or open enrollment, it loses an βanchor of the community,β according to DeMarcus Jenkins, a policy studies professor at the University of Arizonaβs College of Education.
Public schools are often the heart a neighborhood, he said.
At their home school, kids meet and bond with the peers theyβll likely weather their entire K-12 education with, if they continue living in the area. Families gather for sporting events, fundraisers, school dances. Community naturally flourishes there.
So when a school closes or loses an attendance boundary, students and their families lose that opportunity to connect with their community, Jenkins said.
βThe community and those who attend that school often have to make very different decisions around educational choices,β Jenkins said. Districts will sometimes provide students transportation to another school out of the neighborhood, but when that is not available, families are left to fend for themselves.
Higher-income, two-parent families are more likely to have the time to drive their kids to a non-neighborhood school every morning, but lower-income families, who are disproportionately people of color, often donβt, Jenkins said.
That reality leaves them with a choice: Move to a neighborhood that has a home school, or find another means of transportation, he said.
That could force a student to walk miles to school or to ride the city bus, if no district transportation is available.
Open enrollment programs are also competitive, Jenkins said, and βcherry-pickingβ of students often puts non-neighborhood kids at an advantage when they apply.
βYou have (neighborhood) students who now have students from across the city who are fighting for these slots into these neighborhood schools,β Jenkins said. βAnd they get slots over those students who live right down the street.β
In addition to losing its neighborhood boundary, Roskruge would likely no longer be held to integration and academic achievement standards mandated of magnet programs, under TUSDβs unitary status plan.
This isnβt a coincidence, Campoy said.
βWe believe that the No. 1 reason for letting go of the magnet is so that theyβre not held to the same standard that other magnet schools are and being integrated,β she said. βWhich gets them to unitary status a hell of a lot faster. We believe thatβs really the objective.β
TUSD has not said much publicly regarding why it wants to transition Roskruge out of the magnet program, and it hasnβt responded to multiple calls for comment from the Arizona Daily Star. The district Governing Board was supposed to hear a presentation about the possible transition at its last meeting in December, but the item was postponed.
DRACHMAN ALSO ADDRESSED IN REPORT
Hawley was less specific about his recommendations for Drachman K-8 Montessori Magnet, another school at risk of losing its magnet.
He appears to suggest the school keep its magnet status, so long as it fine-tunes the curriculum to its theme and stops enrolling sixth through eighth grade students who donβt have previous experience with Montessori education. Integration efforts will improve as academic achievement does, he added.
The magnet statuses of Roskruge, Drachman, Holladay Magnet Elementary, Borton Magnet and Booth-Fickett Math/Science Magnet have been on the chopping block since November.
The schools were red-flagged because they didnβt meet academic achievement and/or integration requirements set by the USP. Hawley will file his recommendations for the futures of other three schoolsβ magnet programs by Feb. 14, according to court records.
βIt is very difficult to continue to have the perception that this is a district that does not support magnet schools,β Trujillo said at a press briefing last Tuesday, citing the fact that six TUSD magnets were recently honored by the national nonprofit Magnet Schools of America.
