Just over two years ago, we commended the then-members of the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board for listening to the public and unanimously deciding not to close Big Park Community School.
At the time, parents felt the decision to close to the school was hasty and ill-timed, and more than 400 community members came out to tell the district “No.” Parents suggested a host of ideas to help keep Big Park open in the short-term: Private-public partnerships, shifts in financial resources and terminating or cutting salaries of redundant or unnecessary administrators, starting with the overpaid superintendent.
Yet in the last two years, few of these ideas were implemented and the overall enrollment numbers have not recovered.
While some blame the Great Recession or short-term vacation rentals, the fact is enrollment has been steadily dropping for over the last 12 years, falling an average of 42 students per year. The number of students did drop by 109 during the recession as families left the Sedona area, but as the economy recovered 38 students joined the district in 2012, the only time SOCSD saw an uptick in the last 12 years.
In 2006, there were 1,438 students in the district — 509 at the high school and 929 in kindergarten through eighth grade. In 2018, there were only 929 in the entire district — a 35 percent decline.
When a district of only three schools falls more than a third, the mathematics are simple: A school should close, as unfortunate as that may be.
We do not envy the hard decisions elected officials have to make when faced with such a choice. We commend the Governing Board for making the hard decision to close a school, especially one like Big Park Community School, beloved by the surrounding community.
Simply put, Sedona’s students are fewer because our population is getting older. According to the U.S. Census, Sedona’s population has increased only slightly, but the number of schoolchildren age 5 to 18 has dropped by 16.24 percent. Those under 5 — future students — have fallen 5.35 percent. Those between 18 and 64 — those making babies and raising school-age families — have fallen 4.99 percent. Meanwhile the number of residents over age 65, i.e., those without children in school, increased 12.54 percent.
Two years ago we also wrote, “What is abundantly clear is that Superintendent David Lykins needs to be dismissed. If this current board does not have the gumption to do it, then surely it should be the first act when the new board is seated in November. Buy out his contract, send him on his way, and hire a new superintendent with the skills to run a school district.”
Unfortunately the board did not act then and instead allowed Lykins to foul up the district’s finances, lower morale and likely drive many parents to pull their kids from the district.
The board did kick Lykins to the curb when his contract was finally up for renewal, putting an end date on his destructive tenure, but his mismanagement has done its damage. It will be up to the newly hired superintendent, Dennis Dearden, to rebuild trust in the community, stabilize the falling enrollment and work on getting students back in the district.
We sincerely hope the closure of Big Park will slow the district’s financial hemorrhage so it can focus on rebuilding trust and morale and coax parents who have withdrawn students to homeschooling or area charter schools to bring them back.
Better pay for teachers — currently being addressed by the statewide teacher walkout — could make teachers more likely to stay, making parents more trustful of a stable district filled with well-paid teachers eager to stay for the long haul. Perhaps with more students returning, SOCSD may see the need to reopen Big Park.
Village of Oak Creek parents are justifiably worried about the long drive daily up State Route 179, so it would seem time to readdress widening the road to four lanes like the Arizona Department of Transportation proposed a decade ago before Keep Sedona Beautiful and Voice of Choice for 179 stepped in to stop the plan.
Perhaps this time around, KSB and Voice of Choice will stay silent and realize a wider, faster-moving road makes daily commute from the VOC to West Sedona School less stressful on Sedona’s youngest residents — the ones who have no say in what grown-ups do.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
