Rep. Grijalva: TUSD school closures were 'most painful' part of her career

The following transcript has been edited for clarity.

Question: What was the school closure process like for you during your time on the TUSD board?

Grijalva: “It was a really painful process. I remember going to school meetings and kids would be crying saying ‘Please don’t close my school.’ I think it’s important to remember that this is a direct result of the complete starvation of our public school systems. This is systemic. This is not something that just started now, and if you look back on when I was a student at Pueblo High School in 1989, and the fact that the district had more resources dedicated to per pupil funding for me than they do for my son who is a senior now, I mean that's obscene.

“In the whole state of Arizona the oldest buildings are in Tucson Unified, but we get the same amount of per pupil funding for capital for building maintenance as schools that were just built yesterday. There's no weighted consideration. I'm on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce where we’re talking about cutting Title One and Title Nine. Even the federal investment that we used to be able to count on isn’t there.

“The proliferation of charters, all of the voucher system that we have in Arizona, this is a direct result of complete disinvestment in public education. And unfortunately, these boards are the ones dealing with the consequences of this complete attack on public education. We learned a lot of things when we approved the first round of closures, but every single one of them is just so incredibly painful, so I do not envy the situation that they're in.”

Question: If you could share advice with the current board as they navigate the potential changes, what would you say?

Grijalva: “Do the least amount of harm. Do the best you can. Make sure that you give every community the opportunity to talk to you about what is special about the uniqueness of their school. And if you're looking at consolidation, make sure to bring those really beautiful gems and incorporate them into the next school.

“The first round of school closures we did was under Elizabeth Fagan. She encouraged schools to work together and they sort of decided together. That was the least painful, but it was still really hard. The next round, when we closed Jefferson Park, which is in the heart of Tucson, you know we still haven't recovered from some of those losses. If you're going to do these school closures, make sure that it makes sense and learn from the mistakes that have been made when we closed schools.

“I would also say don't penalize communities where those babies are going to our schools in order to keep cuts equal. Like, if the east side has two school closures, don’t think the west side and the south side needs to close two. I was on a board where we did that, and I voted no on those cuts.

“I know that this superintendent and this board have looked at every other option before going this way. I know that we did when we had to close them. Learn from what we did. Make sure to secure the facility, try to get a nonprofit into those schools, work with the city to see if there's a housing opportunity there. Anything that we can do to continue to have our schools be a hub and a resource and asset to the community is best.

“I think part of the problem is you can villainize each other. You can point fingers at each other and say, ‘Well, we need to cut more.’ But at some point, you're really hurting our entire system. In order to avoid closing schools, we did dual principals where one principal was over two schools. I mean, we tried a lot of options. I encourage the community, this board, the superintendent to bring up those examples of things we tried to do in the past to avoid this, because I know we've done everything historically. School closures are the most painful thing that I've ever gone through as an elected person.”