Tempe districts battle dip in enrollment

The Tempe area is losing children. Neighborhoods are aging, as empty nesters choose to stay put in their Tempe homes. Many young families are forced to search for affordable real estate elsewhere.

And nowhere is the dwindling child population felt more than in public elementary schools — where fewer students mean fewer dollars.

Both the Kyrene and Tempe elementary school districts have lost nearly 800 students in the past two years, resulting in a loss of some $3 million in funding.

Nearly all elementary-level charter schools in Tempe have either stagnant or decreasing enrollments, too, according to state Department of Education figures.

While Tempe’s high schools have not yet seen a similar drop, eventually they will have fewer students as today’s children age and advance in the education system.

But you don’t have to step inside a school to notice the loss.

It shows up in other ways. Like in how many pieces of candy Tempe Councilwoman Onnie Shekerjian has to buy for trick-or-treaters each Hal- loween.

“When I moved in 20 years ago, we had hundreds of little kids show up at our door,” she said. “Last year, we probably had less than 100, and I don’t think all those were neighborhood kids and an awful lot of them were high-schoolers.”

A DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT

Tempe’s children aren’t going elsewhere. They’re just growing up, said Jim Lemmon, a member of the Tempe Elementary district’s governing board.

“Tempe has matured. In one of our ZIP codes, 60 percent of people who live in the homes do not have any children at home. They’re empty nesters,” he said. “A starter family cannot afford a yard with grass and trees and a dog in Tempe.”

The new development that is occurring in Tempe — much of it in the form of high-rise downtown condos — is likely unaffordable or unappealing to many young families, school officials say.

This aging-out is occurring in other areas, too, Lemmon pointed out.

“Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler, Mesa’s west side — it’s all developed. You’re not going to see a new influx of kids. It’ll take 10 or 20 years for this whole cycle to go through with this aging, until they move us into nursing homes and younger families move in,” Lemmon said.

Since 2003, Kyrene — which includes a large part of Tempe, as well as parts of west Chandler and Ahwatukee Foothills — has lost 4.4 percent of its student population, and school officials don’t expect the slide to stop soon.

Enrollment woes are nothing new to the Tempe Elementary district. In the late 1990s, enrollment was at an all-time low. Students flocked to charter schools and some district schools were in danger of closing.

When John Baracy took over as superintendent, he forced the district to improve customer service and embark on an aggressive marketing campaign.

In just four years, overall enrollment grew by some 1,300 students, including roughly 800 students drawn from other districts.

But one year after Baracy left Tempe to head the Scottsdale Unified School District, the enrollment numbers started to slip again.

OPEN ENROLLMENT GROWS

Open-enrollment policies have proved a lifesaver for both the Kyrene and Tempe districts, according to board members.

As Tempe Elementary’s overall enrollment drops, the number of out-of-district students attending its schools continues to rise by an average of 160 students during each of the past four years.

“People in the rest of the metro area are looking for choices. If mom and dad live in Mesa and work in Phoenix, they can drop their kids off on their way to work,” Shekerjian said. “It’s good in terms of attracting out-of-district students.”

The Tempe district is hoping to fill Bustoz Elementary School, 2020 E. Carson Drive, with Mesa children, even embarking on a campaign to put door hangers advertising the school in apartment complexes along the Tempe-Mesa border.

Bustoz was down roughly 300 students in fall, district officials said, but they hoped the school’s location — at the crux of U.S. 60 and Loop 101 — might be convenient for commuters.

Board members say they need to offer unique schools with specialized programs.

“We’re all competing for that same little niche group of kids whose parents believe in education and will actually drive them to a school if they believe they can get a superior education, a need filled,” Lemmon said. “So what you see the current board doing is, instead of trying to make all 25 schools look alike, we’re trying to make them different.”

Ward Traditional Academy is one example, he said. And, while the small enrollment at a school such as Bustoz might raise financial concerns, some parents would love to send their child to a very small elementary school, compared with those in neighboring districts that can have 700-plus students, he added.

STILL OPTIMISTIC

Shekerjian said she’s optimistic about the future of the city’s schools because she believes their leadership is creative and open to creating plenty of choices to attract parents.

One of the districts’ competitors, Imagine Elementary charter school, has found that niche and succeeded in the tough Tempe environment.

“We did a lot of research to see the demographics, so we knew it wasn’t going to be a huge school,” said Sonia Gonzales, principal of the school that first opened last fall and is part of a national chain. “Some of our other schools go up to 700. One in east Mesa is full and on a lottery. It’s definitely not like our other schools that we have that are filling themselves because so many new homes are being built.”

Imagine, at Southern Avenue and McClintock Drive, overcame the demographic challenge by promoting small classes, Core Knowledge specialized curriculum, and uniforms, Gonzales said.

“It’s very much like a private school. We felt like there was a real need for that here. It’s not back-to-basics. It’s a very accelerated school with strong academics.”