In a special meeting immediately following a two-hour budget work session Thursday, March 22, the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board voted 3-1 to not close either West Sedona School nor Big Park Community School.

Board member Zachary Richardson voted for considering a closure; board member Karl Wiseman was absent.

BPCS and WSS will both remain open for at least the next school year.

During the special meeting at the Sedona Performing Arts Center at , the board was presented with three options: Closing one of the two kindergarten-to-sixth-grade schools, West Sedona or Big Park, or keeping the two elementary schools open but cutting a swath of programs district-wide and several full-time staff positions.

The district is faced with a possible closure due to declining enrollment. There are currently about 200 students at Big Park Community School and 275 at West Sedona School, far below what they were designed for and below what enrollment had been a decade ago.

While there was no public comment agendized at Thursday’s meeting, had the district opted to close it school, the Governing Board would have scheduled a public meeting in early April during which parents, students and taxpayers could voice their opinions about a closure.

Just over two years ago, in March 2016, SOCSD held a public meeting at SPAC considering closing Big Park Community School. More than 500 people attended and in the end, the board voted 5-0 to keep Big Park open. At that same meeting, the board voted 4-1 to move the district’s seventh- and eighth-graders to the new Sedona Red Rock Junior High School.

For the full story about the work session and the special meeting, the cuts the district now faces and where the district goes from here, see the Wednesday, March 28, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.