Reversing a decision made two weeks ago, the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board voted unanimously to continue discussions about closing one of the district’s elementary schools.

The board has held three meetings so far regarding the cost savings of closing either Big Park Community School or West Sedona School, on March 20 and 22, and April 3. The board is also considering an option to keep both schools open, instead cutting down on programs and personnel.

At the March 22 meeting, board member Zach Richardson was the lone vote in favor of a school closure.

“Neighborhood schools are very important,” he said. “But we can’t have neighborhood schools no matter what the cost. I think at this point we need to make the decision whether we have neighborhood schools or we have a good curriculum, because according to this [budget], we can’t have both.”

By April 3, however, every board member was in favor of at least continuing the discussion.

“The long-term fix is not to keep both schools open in their current forms,” Board President Randy Hawley said, adding that voting to move forward with the discussion allows the board to gather more input and information to make an informed decision.

The board is operating on a crunched timeline: To close a school, the district needs to hold a forum with at least 10 days’ notice to invite public comment before making a final decision. The district sent letters of notice Wednesday, April 4, setting the public forum for Thursday, April 19.

The board will not take action during the April 19 meeting, but Hawley said he anticipates voting whether to close a school — and which school it will be — during a board meeting Tuesday, May 1.

Currently, the district estimates about $300,000 in savings in closing a school, according to budget scenarios presented by finance manager Heather Shaw-Burton. The dollar difference between closing Big Park or West Sedona is minimal: $312,531 estimated saved in closing Big Park, and $307,011 estimated saved in closing West Sedona.

Board member Karen McClelland asked district administration to draft an outline of what a consolidated school would look like to present during the next meeting.

“We need more academic information,” she said, citing a concern about how to make the elementary schools’ signature programs — International Baccalaureate at Big Park and STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] accreditation at West Sedona — coexist on one campus.

Contract Concerns

Complicating matters, the board needs to approve administrative contracts by Sunday, April 15, but it can’t do so if it doesn’t know how many principals will be needed.

The solution for now is that the district has to give the principals notice that their contracts won’t be renewed.

Sedona Red Rock High School Principal Darrin Karuzas gave his resignation, which the board approved Tuesday. With administrative restructuring at the high school and junior high — next year it will have a principal and assistant principal for grades seventh through 12th — the junior high school principal position is defunct, and the district doesn’t know whether Big Park or West Sedona might close, so elementary principal contracts can’t be approved.

In the meantime, though, the board approved teaching and classified staff contracts to the “leanest model,” Shaw-Burton said, meaning if the position does not exist in one of the proposed budget models, that person was not offered a contract. For example, if one of the elementary schools closes, the district won’t need the secretaries at the school that closes, so none of the elementary school secretaries have been offered contracts.

The Public Speaks

At the April 3 meeting, nearly 20 people came forward during the public comment portion of budget discussions. Opinions were split down the middle, with about half favoring a school closure.

“The reality is Sedona is a rural community with no booming job market to bring in families,” said Laurel Romm, a teacher at Sedona Red Rock High School. “… Yes, it would be very nice to keep both schools open so children can remain in their own neighborhoods. Unfortunately, our current financial state of affairs makes this a reckless choice.”

Jason Metzger shared a statement from the Big Park Community School Site Council.

“We believe that pre-K through sixth-grade schools are the heart of their respective communities and the foundation upon which one builds a strong district,” he said. “Both schools are working hard to develop strong IB and STEM programs, from which we continue to see benefits. We do not want either elementary school to close. We want to work together to solve the issues that face the district.”

New Superintendent Hired

Also during the meeting, the Governing Board unanimously voted to approve a contract for Dennis Dearden as the next superintendent. He accepted the position and will start Sunday, July 1.

“Our family is very excited to join the district and move to Sedona,” Dearden said; his daughter will be an eighth-grader at Sedona Red Rock High School. “We think it’s a great district or we wouldn’t be bringing our daughter here.”

“I think he’ll bring a new sense of purpose and energy to the district,” Hawley said. “We need somebody who can bring people together, and I think he can do that.”

Rebekah Wahlberg can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 117, or email rwahlberg@larsonnewspapers.com