The Sedona Police Department completed a security review of Sedona Red Rock High School and West Sedona School in early November, and one of the report’s major recommendations consisted of improving the line of sight on both properties and installing new signage such as “no trespassing” signs adjacent to the school.

“We have a beautiful campus with beautiful trees and shrubs … but because of that, there were and are to some extent, obstructed sightlines,” Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tom Swaninger said. “So if something were to occur, it was advised that first-responders would want to have improved sightlines throughout the campus. What we’ve done is we’ve invested resources to, not only our internal maintenance crew, but also through third-party vendors, to kind of cut back some of the trees and branches and shrubs [in order to improve] those sight lines. So not only does it kind of beautify the campus, but it also makes it that much more safe.”

“That’s something that I would very much be in favor of,” Swaninger said with regard to a U.S. Forest Service proposal to construct a connecting trail between the Schuermann Mountain trail and the Carroll Canyon trail. “Having a separate access point would help us. Because in this area, we have numerous tourists who are unfamiliar with the area, and unbeknownst to them, kind of wander onto our parking lot of our campus looking for this trailhead, and so we are continually helping guide these tourists to the correct location. So by keeping that trailhead off of our property, it will just make our campus all the more safe.”

Swaninger said financial considerations are the district’s main issue when considering future security improvements.

“One [option] is if we just had the money internally, which we don’t,” Swaninger said. “The other is a bond, which I would prefer not to go for a bond … There’s grant opportunities, but they are few and far between and very limiting. Then the other is [to] gain capital in some way.”

Swaninger later added that additional campus security improvements would likely be one of the first things that would happen “if we were to gain capital in any way.”

Big Park Community School

The SOCSD Governing Board will continue its discussion of a proposal to seek voter approval to sell the shuttered Big Park Community School in the Village of Oak Creek to a private party at its meeting on Tuesday, March 5, at 4 p.m.

SOCSD representatives have repeatedly stressed that they are not committed to following through with selling the property to a private party, but want to have that option available as a result of the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors’ lack of action in purchasing the school following a proposal by District 3 Supervisor Donna Michaels over the summer to buy the campus.

“Basically, it’s still, we haven’t heard anything from Donna Michaels, and it’s been a long time,” Governing Board President Randy Hawley said on Monday, Feb. 26. “We can’t afford [to] just to allow it to sit. Because it’s a money drain, No. 1, and No. 2, it just keeps getting in worse and worse shape and it’s getting to the point where it can’t be repaired anymore. So we have to do something with it, and we can’t afford to do it ourselves. [Because] we’ve got to spend our money educating kids. As a result of that, we have to look at different options, when we haven’t been able to get a commitment from the county.”

The property’s roof is in need of repairs at an estimated cost of $146,000, which would be paid by the county if the proposed lease-to-purchase agreement were to be approved.

“We are currently conducting a space study and expect to have some results by the end of this month,” Michaels wrote in a Monday, Feb. 26, email to her constituents. “After that, I’m hoping the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board and County Governing Board agrees to repurpose the campus.”

The nonprofit Big Park Regional Coordinating Council also sent out an email on Sunday, Feb. 25, informing its members of the Tuesday, March 5, SOCSD board meeting discussion and recommending that members “encourage the school board to delay voting on a ballot measure that would allow them to sell the former Big Park Community School campus to a third party.”

“No position has been taken on this yet,” former BPRCC President John Wichert said.

Promotions

SOCSD Director of Operations Jennifer Chilton has been promoted to assistant superintendent and English teacher Karyl Goldsmith has been promoted to director of instruction and curriculum.

“I’m excited about that,” Heather Isom said during the Feb. 20 site council meeting. “[Goldsmith] has flirted with the idea of retirement, and to me, I thought, what a tragedy to let her go without your spreading wisdom on every other teacher that we have. So that will be a full-time job. She will work both at the high school and elementary. Of course, Chilton has been named as the assistant superintendent … To me, it’s a dream team.”