Kyrene Long-Range Planning

Kyrene anticipates consolidation would begin in the 2026-27 school year. Depending on the number of schools impacted, it may take two or more years to fully implement. This decision cannot be made until after the board takes action, which will not happen until December, at the earliest.

At this time, Kyrene anticipates the 3-tier bell schedule would continue. If there are any changes to a school's start/end times, that information would be determined after the final board decision. Any changes would be shared in January, at the earliest.

Transportation will always be aligned to your home school boundary. If your school boundary changes, but you choose to remain in enrolled in a school outside of your boundary, transportation would not be provided.

Yes, Kyrene will provide transportation from Maricopa and South Mountain. If the current proposal is approved, Maricopa open-enrollment students would be offered transportation to Monte Vista Elementary and Centennial Middle School. South Mountain open-enrollment students would be offered transportation to Ninos Elementary and Lomas Elementary as well as Kyrene Middle School and Centennial Middle School. 

Service plans may change, pending the final decision by the governing board.

If the board approves the recommendation, Kyrene fields at impacted properties would still be available for rent/use in the near future. Any long-term decisions about sale/lease/repurposing of properties would happen later.
 

Enrollment is declining over time, not overnight. In the event of school closures, students will be relocated to another school and will still need teachers and staff to support their education. Kyrene intends to follow established class size ranges. Fewer schools would mean fewer administrative and non-classroom positions, and the first approach to address that reduction would be through normal attrition, such as retirements.

Because Kyrene has received support from the community in support of bond and override measures, a long-term capital master plan has been implemented across the district to ensure all 25 school sites are equally maintained at a high standard. None of Kyrene’s facilities are in disrepair and none of our schools have health, safety or compliance issues. Although some buildings may require more capital investments than others in the near term, the reality is that all of our buildings and facilities will need to have significant structural repairs in the next 25+ years as the average age of school buildings is over 35 years. For this reason, geographic considerations carried more significant weight than the age or condition of buildings.

Combining staff from multiple campuses actually helps to increase program capacity. If campuses consolidate, staff will be reasigned alongside students, in order to continue meeting demand for before and after school programs. 

Spreading schools out over a two- or three-year period would allow the district to thoughtfully plan for staffing, transportation, technology and facilities transitions. 

Projects underway in Kyrene today were approved last year as part of Kyrene’s ten-year capital master plan. The district has a responsibility to serve students and staff in our buildings right now, and facility maintenance is key to the health and safety of our school communities. Between the committee’s work this past year and the potential transition work still to come, critical projects could have been on hold for years. Less critical projects, such as cosmetic improvements, have been placed on hold, pending the committee’s work.

This has been and continues to be a multi-year process. While public discussions have been underway for years, the process began in earnest with the development of the Long-Range Planning Committee in the 2024-25 school year. The 2025-26 school year would be a year for community engagement, board decisions, and planning. Implementation would begin in the 2026-27 school year. Depending on the final board vote and the number of impacted schools, implementation make take place over two or more years.

The Kyrene Long Range Planning Committee reached consensus on a proposal on August 27. Once the recommendation was determined, the district could begin considering timelines, transportation and other transitions. Some of these considerations are reflected in these FAQs. Others will take more time. Still others require further study based on recent modifications to the proposal. The earliest possible board vote would be in December. After hearing community input, the board may adopt the recommendation, modify the recommendation again, or make no changes at all.

Kyrene’s demographer accounted for the current student population when developing consolidation options for consideration by the Long Range Planning Committee. Kyrene always gives priority to currently enrolled students. If a school closes, the students who are open enrolled will automatically be assigned a new Kyrene school. Families will continue to have the opportunity to apply for a different school of choice.

You will retain your spot. The demographer took current open enrollment into account when designing models for committee consideration.

Kyrene always gives priority to currently enrolled students seeking a change in school assignment. Additionally, under the proposed plan, there will continue to be room in all Kyrene schools for open enrollment. 

Students who open enroll into a Kyrene elementary school are automatically assigned to the middle school for that region. If an elementary school boundary has two possible middle school assignments, students who live in the elementary school boundary will follow middle school boundaries, while all open-enrolled students will be assigned to only one of the two middle schools.

(Example 1: Mariposa's current boundaries are currently split between KMS and Pueblo, and all open-enrolled students are assigned to KMS. Example 2: Monte Vista's proposed boundaries would be split between Altadeña and Centennial, and all open-enrolled students would be assigned to Centennial.)

Kyrene's open enrollment procedure already prioritizes siblings and would continue to do so.

Students currently enrolled in schools recommended to remain open would not experience a school change. Some school boundaries would expand to welcome additional students.

Kyrene del Norte students would attend Kyrene Middle School. Kyrene de los Lagos students would attend Centennial Middle School. If the gifted academy is located at the proposed site of Kyrene del Milenio, students would attend Centennial Middle School. However, this could change if the gifted academy were located at a different campus.