A mother walks her children into Amphitheaters Nash Elementary School. The school at 515 West Kelso St. in 做厙勛圖 is one of four in the district slated to close after this school year.
Come next fall, students attending Nash Elementary School in 做厙勛圖s Amphitheatre Public Schools will be attending Keeling or Walker Elementary Schools.
Students from Kachina Elementary School in the west Phoenix Peoria Unified School District will decide between Foothills and Canyon elementary schools.
Nash is one of four Amphi schools closing, and Kachina is one of two in Peoria set to shutter amid declining enrollment at public schools statewide.
State education and school officials attribute the enrollment drop to declining birth rates and the expansion of the states Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which gives parents the choice of sending their children to public schools or getting state funds to send them to private or online schools.
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According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the states birth rate dropped from 84,963 births in 2013 to 77,881 in 2023.
About99,000 students across Arizona, including 1,802 from the largest district in the state, Mesa Public Schools, took advantage of ESA funding in the current fiscal year. Another 1.2 million were enrolled in public schools, according toDoug Nick, a spokesman with the Arizona Department of Education.
The state this fiscal year has spent $26.7 million on ESA funding, according to state records.
The state believes its a good idea for parents to have a school that meets their needs, as problems can occur when those needs arent met, Nick said.
Districts statewide, though, have seen enrollment declines. Flagstaff Unified School District saw 144 students leave the system, while in Yuma, the Yuma Elementary School District reported losing 446 students, according to second-quarter reports from the Arizona Department of Education.
Despite these statewide trends, decisions to close schools are made at the district level based on local needs, state officials said.
Students enrolled in ESA receive 90% of the funding allocated for a public school student, but schools are funded per pupil, meaning they are not necessarily losing money per child being taught, Nick explained.
Amphi plans to close four elementary schools Donaldson, Nash, Holaway, and Copper Creek this fall due to lower student numbers. Peoria is expected to close Kachina and Pioneer.
Peoria also plans to repurpose Cactus High School at 6330 W. Greenway Road in Glendale as a seventh- through 12th-grade school, absorbing some of the students from Kachina and Pioneer.
Michelle Valenzuela, communications director for Amphitheater Public Schools since 2018, said the district decided to close the four schools due to declining birth rates, budget challenges, state funding deficits, and the Empowerment Scholarship program.
She added that several elementary schools in the district currently enroll fewer than 250 students, despite being built to accommodate 600 to 700.
The closures also will impact bus routes and transportation, leaving students and families to find alternative ways to get to school this fall, Valenzuela said.
Arizona Sonoran 做厙勛圖 is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.
