Mesa Public Schools the latest district in Arizona to announce layoffs due to budget, enrollment shortfalls
The Brief
Mesa Public Schools is dealing with an $18 million budget reduction and a projected enrollment drop of 1,800 students.
In response, the district announced they would lay off 147 positions for the next school year.
Declining birth rates and expiring state funding were at the center of challenges that forced the school district to announce the personnel decision.
MESA, Ariz. - Mesa Public Schools, Arizona's largest school district, announced they are laying off 147 positions for the next school year.
Among the layoffs, three administrators will be let go as the school manages what they expect will be a reduction in enrollment by 1,800 students.
The school district is also adjusting to a budget reduction of nearly $18 million.
What they're saying
"Despite these obstacles, our commitment to delivering on our promise remains steadfast: to know every student by name, serve them by strength and need, and ensure they graduate ready for college, career, and community," Mesa Public Schools said in a press release.
The district also said they had 1,100 more seniors than kindergartners and noted an 18% decline in statewide birth rates as a contributing factor to the budget reductions and personnel cuts.
Local perspective
In Mesa, birthrates have declined by 28%.
"Compounding these challenges are decreasing state and federal funding, including the expiration of Prop 123 in July 2025, and rising operational costs," the release stated.
Dig deeper
In addition, the school district will eliminate 42 certified staff members.
All employees will receive several months notice before their termination.
The district said that they "carefully evaluated all resources, staffing levels, and organizational structures to align with our district goals."
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Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Yahoo
Forecast: Enrollment slide will continue at Mesa Public Schools
Feb. 17—Bad news for Mesa Public Schools: student enrollment, which drives the budget, is likely to drop for another 10 years or more, according to a consultant. A low-birth rate and school choice continue to play into the ongoing student decline despite Arizona almost doubling its population between 1990 and 2020 to 7.3 million. "We're going to have 10 million people in 2050," said demographer Rick Brammer of Applied Economics at the Feb. 11 Governing Board study session. "But the way it is right now, we're dealing in a world where even though you see growth ... The number of students out there to serve in the state of Arizona is not growing at all. It's fixed." Brammer blamed it on birth rates. "Back at about 2006, 2007, the Great Recession, immigration legislation, all kinds of things and the birth rate basically crashed by 18%," he said, adding it was at that time the lowest birth rate in Arizona history. He said the birth rate then stabilized for three years and he and other demographers anticipated it would go back up again but the exact opposite happened. "People were so traumatized by what they saw happen in the Great Recession," Brammer said. "They acquired so much debt, they saw their parents suffer to such a degree that essentially what they all decided to do was either not have kids at all or put off the decision for later in life. "So, we saw the average age of first birth increased by five years in a space of 10 years. One of the things we know about that is that the longer you wait to have your first child, the fewer children you will have." According to Brammer, 102,000 babies were born in Arizona in 2006 versus 78,000 births in 2023 even with the overall population growing. And while the households of adults in their child-bearing years, those 25-44, has increased from 2010-20 in the district's boundary, they are mainly renters who live in multifamily units not intended for families, according to Applied Economics. Unlike total population, those under the age of 18 declined in most parts of the district, it said. The other compounding factor is school choice. "Since 2009, charter school enrollment has increased by 118,000 students, while other public school enrollment has decreased by 91,000 students," Brammer said. "Except for a little bit of growth between 2009 and about 2014 total publicly funded enrollment in the state of Arizona has not changed at all. "And so as we've introduced choice, it's taken the same size pie and cutting into more pieces. Our pain is inflicted by demographics piled on the timing of choice. That's where the real pain is." The state's Empowerment Scholarship Account program, or ESA, in 2022 was expanded to include all K-12 students eligible for vouchers. Since then the number of new students receiving vouchers to attend private schools went from 11,200 two years prior to 79,000 this year statewide, Brammer said. "Most of the people who took them early were already in a private school," he said. According to Applied Economics, the share of students previously attending a public school before receiving an ESA increased from 21% in Fiscal Year 2023 to 57% in Fiscal Year 2025. That translated to about 29,000 students leaving public schools since the program expansion. Although the program continued to grow last school year, it was not as fast as the last two years, Brammer pointed out. He assured the board that MPS, which has been losing students over the past 14 years, was not alone as most districts in established areas also have been impacted by lower birth rates and increasing enrollment choices. He added that the district like Chandler Unified, Tempe Union K-12 and Scottsdale Unified haven't fully recovered their enrollment prior to the pandemic. "These districts, I would say, are in middle- to upper-income areas for the most part," he said. "You see this drop in 2020. You got a little back but very little compared to what was lost. But so did every one of these other districts, they didn't come back. "If you look at lower socioeconomic status areas in the Valley, you'll see that a lot of kids came back. And what we know about choice is that it's not free to anybody. You have to know about it. "You have to have the money to do it and you have to have the time to do it. So this impact of choice isn't even across the Valley either." Mesa is also losing students to other public school districts. Gilbert Public Schools took the biggest chunk at 2,122 students, followed by Chandler Unified with 728 and Tempe Elementary School District, 710. But in those districts, Brammer has pointed out to their governing boards, high single-family home costs have "locked out" young families that are the most likely to have school-age children. According to Applied Economics, a total of 117 charter schools and public school districts are serving over 18,200 students living within MPS' boundary — or about 23% of its school-age population. Charter schools enrolled 13,000 Mesa kids at 100 different facilities while 17 school districts enrolled about 5,200. Brammer and Associate Superintendent Matt Strom noted that household proximity to a school plays a big part in where parents enroll their children. "There's misconceptions on who your competitors are and proximity matters," Strom said. For instance, Mesa High School's main competitor is not Mountain View but Gilbert High for students and Dobson High's main competition is not Westwood but Chandler High, Strom said. And like other districts, MPS' K-2 class size has declined the most, which is "not showing us a lot of hope for the future," Brammer said. He warned that while the 9-12 enrollment is now by far the biggest cohort, it's starting to arc down. "We know in the next five or six years, we're going to see a pretty big drop at the high-school level," he said. Brammer said that Arizona is growing but that the 18 and younger population has been unchanged for the last 15 years and "probably will continue to be for at least the next 10." Board member Marcie Hutchinson said it appeared that the state's passage of SB 1070 in 2010 also was a major factor behind the district's enrollment drop and asked how many students were lost because of it. About 8,000, Brammer responded. Much of the provisions of the anti-immigration law was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014. Hutchinson also asked how the Trump administration's push to deport people who are in the country illegally will impact enrollment. Strom said that staff uses a model to predict enrollment loss and for next school year the district anticipates losing 1,800 students. "There are several factors in that," Strom said. "One of those is immigration. This is not a political statement, I don't want people to hear it as a political statement. This is an impact on enrollment and enrollment affects our budget." He said that district administration discusses a lot if "that 1,800 number enough and do we need to figure out where are our next budgetary savings will come from if 1,800 rolls in at 2,500 due to immigration." Hutchinson referred to Superintendent Andi Fourlis' status report to the board, which mentioned that the district's "attendance numbers have gotten to now 89%." "I know that some of that is the result of fear and I worry about the impact this is going to have," Hutchinson said. She also asked how many MPS students came from other districts, which Brammer said he is able to track but didn't have the number off the top of his head. He also said that the new federal policy on immigration won't have a big impact on MPS' enrollment. "It's not going to be 8,000 because we just do not have the type of illegal population that we have now," Brammer said. "It's much less families and it's much more single adults. "I don't believe that there is the volume of people with kids to be deported that would have that kind of an impact. Will it have some impact? Yeah. I'm more worried about the fear than I am the actual event. It's keeping people home from work, too, by the way." Board member Sharon Benson wanted to know why students leave district campuses and said if MPS was able to recapture 2,000 of them it would not need to do layoffs. "I'm just going to keep beating this drum until we actually answer the question," Benson said. "What's the district doing to recapture because parents are choosing something else because we are not providing them with the product they want for their children." Brammer said that the choice of education is socially motivated — "borderline segregation — people choosing to want to go to school with people who look like them." Benson asked what evidence he based his statement on. "Well, the fact that the charter schools tend to have a much higher ratio of children of certain ethnicities than others," he responded. After Benson pressed him into agreeing it was more an economic issue behind the choice of schooling, she added that she didn't want it misconstrued that it was a race issue. "Let's not bring race into it because that is totally counterproductive to anything that we want to discuss here," she said. "We need to realize as a district parents are choosing to leave for reasons that we can probably address and that we can mitigate the things that they don't like." She asked if the district conducts an exit survey with families who leave the district. Staff said the district just started such a survey, Board member Rachel Walden admonished Brammer, saying "I don't appreciate that we paid a consulting fee for somebody to come in and tell us that charter school parents are racist." He apologized and said he didn't mean to imply that. "That's the impression I got," Walden said. "It sounded very bad, because we don't have the data on that. It could just be that charter schools are going into specific neighborhoods to build schools, and I think proximity to one's home is also a big factor in where people go." "And now we're seeing a lot of developments where there's a new housing development that goes up and then a charter school goes right up next to that new housing development. And so there's those trends, too." She said she was interested in finding out where students who left the district went to. After schools re-opened following COVID, the kids disappeared, Walden said. "The birth rate didn't change," she pointed out. "In just four years, we lost students and I think that's nationwide. "The big fervor over school boards happened when parents saw some of the stuff that was being taught in the classroom, or some of the stuff that teachers said," Walden continued. "So there is a place where I think parents have left public school. Maybe they didn't even see it in their own school but they saw what was going on in other schools that made them nervous. "So there's definitely a lot of factors that are not just birth rates. The birth rates kind of got us here with our low enrollment K through second grade. Younger kids, they're not coming in and that's going to compound as we go forward. "I think there's a trust that we need to build with the community."
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Yahoo
42 layoffs thin schools' counselor, other ranks
Feb. 17—Forty-two Mesa Public Schools teachers and counselors last week were handed pink slips, effective May 23. The Governing Board also approved cutting 147 district-level positions, including three administrative roles such as department directors. The district spokeswoman said she didn't yet have information on what those positions are and how many were vacant and how many were filled. "I'd like to express my sorrow that we're in a position that necessitates a reduction," board President Courtney Davis said. "It's been a rough couple of weeks as we've gone through this process and this is not an easy time." Approximately 100 certified staff also will be transferred to other schools to roles that they are qualified, the district said. Necessitating the layoffs is an anticipated loss of 1,800 students, amounting to a $16.7 million drop in funding for the state's largest school district next academic year. Overall MPS, which also is dealing with rising operating costs, had to close a $18-million spending gap. The bulk, or 90%, of the district's budget is tied to pay. With the job cuts, the district still maintained staffing at 50% certified staff, 48% classified staff and 2% administrative staff. The 42 people let go comprised about 1.1% of the district's certified staff, according to Justin Wing, assistant superintendent of Human Resources. He said every effort was made to reduce the number of layoffs such as asking employees who planned on leaving or retiring to give notice early. "We'll continue to monitor resignations retirements as we move forward in the school year," Wing said. Tenure and seniority were not used in determining the layoffs. Instead the cuts were based on each employee's evaluated performance and past disciplines or if their job was being eliminated. "I find it ironic that we celebrated counselors last week and yet so many of the folks that are being riffed are counselors," board member Marcie Hutchinson said. "I was a candidate in 2018 when kids came to us begging for counselors. "We know how valuable counselors are to our principals but we also know how valuable they are to our families and to the well-being of our children," she continued. "I wish we could provide counselors for our kids but we just don't have the funds to do it and it really pains me to vote on so many counselors from the high school level to the elementary level because they have been incredibly valuable in helping us recover from COVID and facing the situations that we have in our society today." Of the 42 certified staff laid off, 20 are counselors. The district also laid off PE teachers, social studies teachers, a music teacher, a social worker and two Chinese language teachers. Hutchinson asked if there was any chance of the district rehiring the staff if the state's Classroom Site Fund becomes available or if the state Legislature appropriates more funds. She said that a majority of the staff in the district's last big layoff in 2008 were hired back. There was some possibility with the Classroom Site Fund but he didn't hold too much hope in that, said Scott Thompson, assistant superintendent of Business and Support Services. He said the stronger option was banking on more money from the Legislature. "Remember we've estimated all this based on the information we have here in February," Thompson said. "And some of the state's budget's not done yet. "There's still variables. We're very early, which is good because we've notified people early but we're also making a lot of decisions before we have all the answers." According to Wing, the district's Path2Teach program could be an option for displaced employees to train for other certified positions such as in special education. He also noted that impacted employees can be candidates if there are openings. "We're going to have certified openings," Wing said. "For example, we're going to have special-education openings." Classify staff that are being laid off also can find a different role in the district, according to Wing. "We are always needing bus drivers," he said. "So individuals who may not aspire to be a bus driver or knew that we provide CDL training at no cost may be inspired to do that to remain a Mesa Public Schools employee." Meredith Bleak was one of three speakers talking about the reduction in force. "We're losing enough teachers for an elementary school," she said. "I don't see a principal's name on here." She questioned if the district was being fiscally responsible for implementing block scheduling, which "we've been told is going to cost more in the beginning and in the long run, especially when it's arbitrary and self-imposed." "Perhaps if we didn't do block schedule we could save people's jobs," Bleak continued A block schedule is a restructuring of the traditional school day where classes are organized into longer periods, typically 80-90 minutes. It allows for more in-depth instruction and fewer transitions between classes throughout the day, according to the district. That scheduling system was rolled out in the 2024-25 school year at Dobson, Skyline and Westwood high campuses. Mark Kimball noted that the district is touting a low birth rate for the decline in student population and needs to be honest why it's happening. "What's interesting is why is there a low birth rate," Kimball said. "Why does Mesa Public Schools seem to allow teachers and staff to promote lifestyles that don't bear fruit? "What's worked in Mesa for pretty much a century is young man marries young woman, they stay in Mesa, have a bunch of kids. "Now we're seeing that whole thing being challenged now because of what's being promoted. These kids are, in many situations, confused. I think we're seeing some clarity in our country at this point about that confusion." He also accused the teachers' union of being "in lock step sometimes with Planned Parenthood that takes over 12,0000 lives through abortion." "How many of those would be added to the rolls of Mesa Public Schools. It's a hard issue but it needs to be looked at seriously."
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Yahoo
City of Grand Junction buys 21.78 acres for Salt Flats
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) – Just a little way down the road, a new set of homes is in the works. Ashley Chambers, housing manager for the City of Grand Junction, states, 'We had heard of the new Prop 123, land banking funding become available, and so we at the city or have adopted housing strategies, and one of our goals was to identify properties that could be used for affordable housing development.' The City of Grand Junction acquired 21.78 acres of land to start the Salt Flats project after receiving a $2.2 million proposition grant from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority Land Banking Program. The city provided an additional $1 million match to secure multiple grants. Chambers states, 'Over the last year, we've been working to sort of negotiate that site, do all of the due diligence, run studies on the site and also work to negotiate sort of infrastructure costs for development.' Chamber states, 'I think one of the goals is that we do have our ideal locations for housing as an infill so where there's already transportation networks and already access points to key locations in our community.' Grand Junction Mayor Abram Herman stated, 'With a housing shortage impacting our workforce and families, this site will play a crucial role in providing more affordable and attainable housing options to ensure long-term stability and economic resilience.' 'We have seen an increase of development in our community of multifamily products and homes in general, but we have largely not seen Capital A affordable projects, and with our housing crisis and prices having increased so much. We believe that this project really lays a foundation for increasing capital and affordable units within our community and creating a market where there really isn't one,' Chambers said. The Salt Flats project intends on building 324 to 500 affordable housing units. Chamber states, 'We know that usually people with lower incomes are looking at rentals, which is why that 60% AMI exists for rental market.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
