The Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board unanimously approved its 2024-25 academic calendar during its meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 13. The most significant change will take place on Wednesdays starting in the fall, when the end of the school day will be moved to 1:05 p.m. at West Sedona School and the start of the school day to 10 a.m. at Sedona Red Rock High School in order to accommodate staff professional development. The bus schedule will not be affected by the change.
SRRHS previously had a late start schedule, but early release is a new schedule for WSS. “Staff is aware of the burden the early dismissal could have on families and is committed to providing no-cost childcare, clubs and tutoring during early release time,” the draft meeting minutes stated.
Any parent or guardian unable to pick up their child at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, or who would prefer to pick them up after that time, can place them in after-care free of charge. Students may take later bus routes home, or parents can choose to pick their child up at their usual time.
“The one piece that we are very mindful of is that, especially for our younger students, that having an early release could affect our parents, especially working parents,” SOCSD Superintendent Tom Swaninger said during the meeting. “So our proposal is that we continue to offer transportation busing. And we have our extended day free of charge for all students who would like to stay on campus and take part in whenever the clubs and tutoring that’s available on that day. So from the outside in the community it should have very little impact. But on the inside in our organization, I believe that it will have a deep impact [and] a very positive impact on our student achievement.”
Big Park Community School
“We’re having a conversation about Big Park,” Vice President Lauren Robinson said. “That’s taking resources away from our main focus, which is to educate our kids and if we open the door and lower prices, without really researching what it will cost us, we’re going to do the same thing that we’re trying to avoid by getting rid of Big Park. So I’m going to be — I want to be on record — as nice as it is, would be to allow nonprofit organizations come in at a lower cost, it can’t come out of our kids’ dollars that educates them and provides services that we’re supposed to be giving.” The board subsequently directed staff to bring the question of a ballot item back for a vote during its March meeting.
Sedona Performing Arts Center
SOCSD Director of Operations Jennifer Chilton gave a presentation on the history of the district’s administration of the Sedona Performing Arts Center, the costs associated with the building and a history of its rental rate.
The question of the affordability of SPAC to local arts groups had been raised at the board’s January meeting following December comments by Lupita Pollock, founder of Running River School, that the space was too cost-prohibitive for groups such as the Sedona Dance Academy, which instead put on its performance of “The Nutcracker” in Camp Verde.
“As of today, Sedona Dance Academy has 124 students in its program, most of which reside in Sedona,” said Althea Johnson, a board member of the Sedona Dance Academy, reading a written statement from academy founder Jessica Phillips. “We’re ready to start performing in SPAC on a regular basis for both spring and winter shows. What deems this challenging is the exorbitant cost for a full day renting SPAC, plus hiring lighting, tech and sound tech for our small business.
“Would you consider offering a tiered pricing for local art schools to make the use of this beautiful space more available to our local performing artists and children?”
Johnson noted the Sedona Dance Academy has been growing rapidly and that it has been doing performances in Cottonwood and Camp Verde, where it “had standing room only and people still weren’t able to go. So there is a need for quality and large enough space for these kids to be able to perform.” SOCSD administration will be researching rental rates and present their findings again at a future board meeting. Chilton stated that there had been no rate increases for SPAC rental apart from custodial costs since 2013, “so that’s why on my ideas a new rate structure study would be completely appropriate.”
The challenge is that SOCSD can’t subsidize performances and requires them to at least be “a break-even venture,” Chilton noted.
“I don’t speak for the board on this, but I personally would love to have a third-party organization in charge of promoting and filling the SPAC, somebody that is either employed through fundraising, volunteer basis, whatever that happens to be, and allow Dr. Chilton and our other leaders to do the work that best serves our students,” Swaninger said.
Raises
Director of Finance Stacy Saravo presented the district’s proposed initial fiscal year 2025 employment contracts during the meeting.
“A few weeks ago, when Dr. Swaninger and I started talking about preparing for our school year 2025 contracts, one of the things that was important is that we wanted to offer them as soon as possible, so that we can start the recruiting process as early as possible,” Saravo said. “We live in a challenging area. So the earlier that we can get out in front of our openings, the better.”
Total staff salary is projected to increase $205,702.54 through a two-step raise under the proposal.
“We hear it all the time, ‘Nobody can afford in Sedona.’ And the way you respond to that is through market economy, is you increase wages,” board member David Price said.
The 2025 budget will be presented to the board in June.
