Acknowledging the process they put in place was flawed and pitted schools against each other, the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board Tuesday nixed a plan to move Catalina High School students from their campus, and give the Catalina campus to University High School students.
Instead, the Governing Board in a unanimous vote decided to study all 10 of TUSDβs high schools for possible reconfiguration and restructuring, which may or may not include finding UHS a new home.
UHS currently shares a campus with Rincon High School, at 421 N. Arcadia Ave., but it is a separate and independent school exclusively for gifted students who can pass its rigorous admission requirements. Under the nixed plan, Catalina students would have been absorbed into Rincon.
But critics argued that the boardβs decision to study all 10 schools will add fuel to the fires of uncertainty at TUSD, and will drag every high school into the same mess that enveloped the three schools.
District Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo attempted to tamp down those fears, saying while the review will look at what all 10 schools can do to improve, not all 10 will be considered for consolidation or school boundary changes. That portion of the proposal will be reserved for schools that face under-enrollment or over-crowding, he said.
βWeβre not going to redraw the map for all 10 of our schools. This will look at (high schools) that could present an opportunity to increase enrollment, retain kids, increase student achievement and address the underutilization of facilities,β he said.
He said the plan will come in two parts β changes the district can make without seeking approval from the plaintiffs in the districtβs longstanding desegregation lawsuit, and changes that will require court approval.
The former will include attempts to draw students from around the district to under-enrolled schools by boosting their career and technical, or advanced placement offerings. The latter would be more drastic measures, such as merging schools or changing school district boundaries.
THE PLAN
The nixed UHS proposal, which aimed to alleviate crowding at the Rincon/UHS campus and allow the latter to grow, struck a nerve in all three communities and drew a crowd of more than 200 people at Tuesdayβs Governing Board meeting.
The Governing Board majority had initially offered glowing support of the plan when UHS staff presented it at the Boardβs Oct. 3 meeting. Board members Michael Hicks, Rachael Sedgwick and Mark Stegeman, who has advocated for getting UHS its own campus for years, voted in October to further study the issue, and heaped praise on UHS.
But neither Rincon nor Catalina were consulted on the consolidation plan presented in October, which brewed bad blood between the two communities and left the two schools feeling like they had been neglected.
Rincon officials said the way the plan was βhatched in secretβ amounted to an βattempted hostile takeover of one school by anotherβ and if the plan didnβt move forward, relations between Rincon and UHS have been so strained by the proposal that theyβll need βmarriage counseling.β
The board majority abandoned the proposal Tuesday after heavy lobbying efforts from the Catalina community and after hearing from Catalinaβs and Rinconβs site councils, made up of teachers, administrators and students, who were thoroughly against the proposal.
Importantly, Gloria Copeland, representative for the African American plaintiffs in the districtβs longstanding desegregation lawsuit, told the Governing Board she wanted to make clear that her plaintiffs were against the plan. And the special master who oversees the districtβs desegregation efforts also wrote the board a litany of concerns about the proposed merger.
UHS supporters showed up in force and argued that after decades of co-locating with Rincon, and Tucson High before that, UHS students have earned the right to their own campus, their own sports teams and their own identity.
βRight now, UHS is the people not the place. But imagine what it could be if it were both,β UHS student Tessa DeConcini said.
And school administrators noted that the school, which is one of the few growing schools in TUSD, is actually helping the district attract students and the related state funding that comes with them, which the district sorely needs.
About half of UHSβ students come from outside the district, or didnβt attend a middle school within the district, school officials noted.
Catalina supporters said that the harm to students at Catalina, 3645 E. Pima St., is far greater than the benefits that UHS students would receive from the merger.
Catalina, for instance, is home to a large population of disabled students and is outfitted with necessary special services for those students, including ramps, elevators and extra wide doors. Its parking lot is large enough to accommodate HandiCars and parentsβ wheelchair accessible vans. Rincon would have to be retrofitted to serve those students.
It is also home to a large population of refugee students, who would be displaced once again due to the move.
βIn summary, I would say there are more than 20 good reasons not to move Catalina people and programs to the Rincon campus. Of particular concern is the finely tuned balancing act Catalina has evolved to deal with their diverse and fragile population,β Donald Ijams, a Catalina high alumni, told the Governing Board, urging the board to drop the idea of closing Catalina.
Others, including a handful of UHS current and former students, noted that UHSβ partnership with Rincon offers benefits to both schools and makes each stronger.
James Chabin, a 2016 UHS graduate, said as a basketball player for the Rincon Rangers, he got to interact with both Rincon and UHS students, and his high school experience was richer for it.
βUHS is absolutely a great place and it deserves all of your support. But one of the reasons itβs such a great place is because it shares a campus with Rincon,β he said.
In the end, the Governing Board decided to order staff to come up with a reconfiguration and restructuring plan for all of TUSDβs 10 high schools, though itβs unclear whether that plan will involve finding UHS its own campus β or if whatever plan the district comes up with will pass muster with the stakeholders in the desegregation lawsuit.
FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL
The current situation at the Rincon/UHS campus is untenable, Stegeman said, noting that the campus has exceeded capacity.
βYouβve got two captains on a ship and more people on the ship than will even fit. Thatβs just not a good situation,β he said.
But TUSD Board member Adelita Grijalva said the flawed rollout from the Governing Board needlessly pitted schools against each other in a fight for survival.
βAs a board, we created the environment we see here where we have negative comments about other schools and separating populations. Thatβs not something anybody wanted, and thatβs why I originally asked the board not to speak (specifically) about Catalina,β she said.
Board Member Kristel Foster said the debacle showed a crisis of leadership from the governing board.
Sedgwick agreed that the process leading up to the board meeting was flawed, and said there are a number of issues the board and district need to address to ensure the same problems donβt pop up again.
Stegeman said he wants the district to find a win-win solution, and never meant to propose something that would hurt any of the school communities. But he warned that the district has repeatedly talked about finding UHS a home, and kicked the discussion down the road.
The board argued at length about including a timeline on a proposal for restructuring and reconfiguring the districtβs 10 high schools, but ultimately decided against it, settling instead on having staff prepare a preliminary report by the boardβs February meeting.
βI donβt see the urgency,β Hicks said, noting any plan will need approval from the slow-moving federal courts before it can take effect anyway.
