Is CCUSD survey for bond election?

A recent Desert Advocate article is headlined “CCUSD nears capacity,” according to a survey released by the district. What nonsense!

Using CCUSD’s own capacity figures for elementary schools (650 students in each elementary school), the district’s current elementary school enrollment as well as historical increases in CCUSD elementary enrollment (an average annual increase of 34 students over the past several school years), it would take 13 years for student enrollments to achieve the CCUSD capacity  figure.

Further, CCUSD uses 110 percent of the above capacity figure to determine when it needs to construct a new school. Based on current CCUSD enrollments, it would take about 22 years of annual increases in student enrollments to achieve this new construction capacity figure (715 students per elementary school).

According to this Desert Advocate article by Kathleen Stinson, CCUSD appears to have increased the capacity figures for middle schools from the usual 650 students to 875. Using the average annual increase of 43 students in middle school enrollments, it would take 7 to 8 years to achieve the 875 student capacity figure and about 11-12 years to reach the CCUSD new construction capacity figure.

The article also says that the CCUSD high school capacity appears to have been increased from 1,400 to 1,650 students. Well, the actual high school enrollment figures, as of the end of February, were 1,651, or about 1 student above this new student capacity figure.

Is this district survey part of CCUSD’s planning for a larger bond election this coming November, including funding for the construction of new, and perhaps unnecessary, schools? We wonder.

Marti Marino Chair,
Take Back Control of Our Schools
Scottsdale