Mesa school board, City Council discuss facility use, capital planning at collaborative session

By Connor Van Ligten
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The Mesa Public Schools Governing Board and Mesa City Council recently discussed the district’s facility use and planning around capital funds at a Sept. 17 collaborative session at the Ikeda Stage at the Mesa Arts Center.

MPS Chief of Staff Justin Wing talked about the district’s enrollment, which has declined year-over-year in recent years. Wing said enrollment is directly correlated to the funds the district has to work with.

“We’ve seen a significant decline in enrollment,” Wing said. “Enrollment is revenue. And a decline in enrollment is a decline in revenue.”

Wing spoke on some of the current strategies outlined by an MPS presentation to navigate around decreased revenue.

“We’re looking at reducing some of our overall square footage via portables. If we have less students, then there are less rooms that we need,” Wing said. “Maximizing our school campuses. We know that each school is a pillar to each community, and we know that MPS is a pillar to the city of Mesa, so we’re really looking at maximizing our school campuses.”

Wing said the district is also looking at consolidating administrative buildings, as well as partnering with themselves (through consolidation), educational agencies and nonprofits to use capital and resources more efficiently.

In addition to Wing, MPS Chief Financial Officer Tyler Moore also gave a presentation about co-location exploration, which is defined as a facility shared by both MPS and by the city to use for educational functions but also city operations.

The focus for these sites would be on areas that are underserved or with more vulnerable populations. One such example outlined during the presentation was a co-location that could educate students during school hours but also serve as a community center to vulnerable populations outside of school hours.

Moore said this would have a lot of benefits.

“Beyond the benefit of shared infrastructure, there is also increased community access in underserved areas,” Moore said. “There might be opportunities for enhanced school resources, and depending on the city function, it might overlap well with the school where the parents and the students can take advantage of resources there.

MPS board member Sharon Benson expressed a concern about possible security issues from people using the city resource aspect of a co-location possibly having unwanted or unsafe interactions with students there for educational purposes.

“Are we going to make sure that there is not any possibility for inappropriate negative interference with any of our educational opportunities on campus?” Benson said.

MPS Superintendent Matthew Strom told Benson that ensuring safety is the No. 1 priority of the district when it comes to co-locations.

“That is the highest-level criteria,” Strom said. “Student safety, community safety and staff safety on our campus is the highest priority in any decision to make.”

Mesa Unified School District — also known as Mesa Public Schools — is the largest public school district in Arizona and has six high schools, nine junior high schools, 55 elementary schools and 18 choice and success schools.