“It is undisputed that TUSD is losing students every year and currently has 13,000 empty seats,: wrote Judge bury in his ruling Friday in support of TUSD’s school closures, “As noted by both the Fisher and Mendoza Plaintiffs, most of the schools the District proposes to close are “operating significantly under capacity and are expected to remain under capacity well into the future.”
This is the second time in only a few weeks that the federal judge approved the requests of the District despite the fact that the Ninth Circuit Court remanded the 34 year desegregation case back to Bury because he had mistakenly assumed the District could or would act in good faith.
One of the African American representatives in the case described Bury’s ruling as “sloppy and lazy.” She reported that principals are now up in arms over the fact that they have been notified by assistant superintendent Abel Morado this week that desegregation money will no longer make its way into classrooms.
The judge accepted the District’s claim that it was facing a deficit and the school closures would save approximately $4 million. However, after the last school closures, the District revealed that the closures did not save as much as the District had said they would.
School Board member Michael Hicks had refused to vote on the school closures due to the fact that he believed the selection process for closures was less than honest and politically motivated.
Hicks is now asking that the schools be immediately available for lease to charter school operators to keep the neighborhood schools open and available for underserved students. He pointed to Menlo Park and Howenstein as schools that serve their populations and whose closure would create real hardships for students.
“The District obviously cannot or will not find a way to save these schools, but there are many people in the community who would see the opportunity to step up and serve. We shouldn’t stand in their way,” said Hicks, a fiscal conservative and graduate of westside area schools including Cholla High School. “We didn’t take the time to do this right.”
The Fisher Plaintiffs agree and argued “that operating under capacity might “just as reasonably be cited as grounds for reassigning students to [a school], rather than away from it.”
Judge Bury once again ignored the District’s history of acting in bad faith and cleared the way for the big box schools Pedicone and company envision.
• In the past, TUSD has spent more on administration and less in the classroom than any other district in the state.
• It also receives more tax dollars per student than only one other district in the state.
• Overall TUSD schools have been some of the worst performing schools in the state.