Closing Desert Arroyo sounds enticing if you're not affected
May 3, 2009, Guest Commentary By Gregory V. Smith, Black Mountain Parent
Closing Desert Arroyo sounds enticing if you're not affected. But it's an unnecessary, drastic action. A losing proposition.
The argument boils down to this: don't cut the budget with a scalpel, just amputate the patient's arm.
So much would be lost. Who remembers last fall's governing board campaign promises to put classrooms and students first?
Shuttering DAMS is not putting classrooms first, it's eliminating them. It's treating students like cattle.
Reopening a school later sounds good, but closed schools don't reopen.
The reality is students are uprooted. Say what you want, students hear their school isn't worth saving. Schools are a huge part of student and community identity. Sports and cheer squads would morph into Sonoran Trails Stingers. Their identity would be lost.
Before college, schools should be local and small. That would be lost.
Closing the school means moving sixth grade to elementaries. That means reinventing all five elems.
Cramming all 7th- and 8th-graders into Sonoran Trails would create an unmanageable megaschool. It's a recipe for disciplinary disaster.
Every 6th-grader would likely lose science labs and other important elements of middle school. One third of kids' middle school experience would be lost.
Moving 65 teachers would disorient much of the district. Reinventing the wheel everywhere except the high school would waste scarce resources and create chaos. We could lose $170,000 in productivity.
The central location would be lost. Not only would $75,000 be spent on extra school busing, but people could drive an extra 200,000 miles per school year. That's a lot of air pollution added. Time and money lost.
If you rent out the school, you're aiding a private school that would siphon off students. Otherwise, you'll spend perhaps $100,000 yearly to mothball DAMS. Either way, money lost.
We also risk losing open enrollment students to charters and privates if the commute becomes too far. Losing 3 percent is 20 students, or maybe $100,000 lost.
Total losses from closure would probably exceed $300,000. If so, you'd put 730-some kids and teachers through all this agony to save less than you could do by changing thermostats.
That would be a huge, unnecessary, tragic loss.
Keep DAMS open.
-- Gregory V. Smith
Black Mountain parent