Tempe Union buses pick up kids outside district

Since the early 1990s, Arizona's open enrollment law has allowed students to attend public schools outside the districts where they live. But in most cases, families had to provide their own transportation.

Now some East Valley school districts are boosting their enrollment rosters by taking their buses into neighboring districts to pick up students. And that's not going over too well with some who think school districts should respect each other's turf.

"When we're invading another district's boundary to get them, I think that's not quite fair," said longtime Tempe Union High School District board member Michelle Helms, who recently opposed her district's plan to allow Tempe buses to pick up students in Maricopa. "I would not like someone to come into our boundaries and take our children."

Tempe Union joined its sister districts - Tempe and Kyrene elementary - this month in taking buses across boundary lines. Tempe Elementary picks up students in far west Mesa on one route. Kyrene Elementary has offered bus service to Maricopa and along Baseline Road in Phoenix. The Tempe Union board voted in July to allow district buses to pick up students in Maricopa who want to attend the district's Mountain Pointe High School in Ahwatukee Foothills.

While the vote allows the busing only as long as it's cost effective, Helms questions the appearance the move gives to neighboring districts.

"It's nothing that is usually done by districts," she said. "What bothers me is I've always tried to respect other districts' boundaries ... I think it's a lot different if the parent says I want my child to go to McClintock or Desert Vista or whatever and they are willing to bring them in or the child has other transportation."

District spokeswoman Linda Littell said the move to bus students to Mountain Pointe came at the request of parents.

"We receive a number of calls from parents; the majority of those calls come from Maricopa," Littell said. "A number of those students already go to Mountain Pointe."

She said it's not about competition or comparing schools.

"It is my belief that the (Tempe Union) superintendent wants to provide the service to parents in an effort to do the right thing," she said. "The intent is not to rob other school districts of students."

Mountain Pointe High School has 2,341 students, with 324 enrolled from out of district.

Kyrene's busing program started the same way, with the district seeing a number of students enrolling from the Baseline Road area and Maricopa, said district spokeswoman Nancy Dudenhoefer.

"It's like a business. You have existing customers who have a need and you try to serve that need," she said. Last year, 3,200 students enrolled in Kyrene from out of district, bringing the total enrollment in the district to a little more than 18,000. Kyrene bused about 930 students from the Maricopa and Baseline Road areas, she said.

And Kyrene feeds into the Tempe Union district.

"Kyrene already picks up those kids," Littell said. "It was the expectation that (Tempe Union) do that. It was those parents. Bus service had already been provided. They just wanted to continue that service," when students moved to the Tempe Union high schools.

So when classes began Aug. 4, buses for Mountain Pointe were sent to outlying areas. According to Littell, about 110 students are picked up out of boundaries - some at Rancho El Dorado Parkway and Lake Vista and some at Bowlin Road and Alterra Parkway, both stops in Maricopa.

But Maricopa Unified School District's superintendent questions the decision, especially if it turns into a public marketing drive to take students from his schools.

"The question I would ask is what is the strategy used to persuade parents to have their children go there? Is it 'We're performing better?' Is it 'We're safer?' Is it 'Our schools are better designed?' If these are the strategies they are using then I think we're somewhat breaching integrity," Superintendent John Flores said.

State law created open enrollment to encourage competition among public school districts, said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne.

"That's the intent," Horne said. "The quality of public education for the last 40 years or so has been uneven. This has been both a way to allow parents to send their student to where the schools are better and to give schools an incentive to improve if they're losing kids."

Maricopa is a district that is starting to boom with students. To help meet growth, three elementary schools opened this school year.

"We're growing so fast sometimes we do have students in class sizes that might be larger, but this year the class sizes will be ideal for all students," Flores said.

And he has plans to further strengthen the district's offerings, especially with young learners. Maricopa schools bring in about 80 students out of the district.

"It's open enrollment, but it's also about relationships," Flores said. "I guess we have to do more bragging."

Each student who is counted in a school's average daily enrollment brings money to a school district. For a high school, it's about $5,000 per student.

As some districts struggle with lagging enrollment and failed voter initiatives, those students become precious.

That's one reason Tempe Union board member Helms was not comfortable when the board agreed to the bus changes.

"I think it was brought forth at this time ... as you know we lost our last (budget override) election, so we're seeking revenue sources," she said.

Without open enrollment, the Kyrene district might have had to close schools, Dudenhoefer said.

"Right now there are not new young families coming in," she said. "If we have students who want to come here, that assists our existing students because we're able to keep all our schools at capacity. If you're not at capacity then you have to consider other options."

Even with students enrolling elsewhere, Maricopa schools are seeing a growth pattern that Flores believes will continue. There are about 6,200 students in the district's nine schools.

"You try to build your home," he said. "You try to make your home as well as you possibly can before you go into your neighbor's yard."

Flores said he hasn't contacted other districts but is open to a discussion.

"I want to set up a meeting to see what our true goals are," he said. "I don't think it's all financial, Teachers in both districts are equally dedicated and work very much and it would not be fair to compare their efforts."