Families fight for Copper Creek Elementary School | News

Copper Creek Elementary School parents and staff are urging the Amphitheater Public Schools board to keep their school open.

Backers of the K-5 school in its namesake Oro Valley community constituted the majority of public speakers Dec. 9, when the school board formally heard Superintendent Todd Jaeger’s recommendation that Copper Creek, Nash, Holaway and Donaldson elementary schools be shuttered at the end of this school year.

Copper Creek families also submitted a digital petition, with 1,082 signatures as of Dec. 10, urging the board to delay its scheduled Jan. 13 vote on school closures. Petitioners ask the Amphi board “to pause this closure, do a full analysis of alternatives, and consider solutions that keep neighborhood schools alive.”

“My heart is truly breaking,” Gina David, an early childhood special education teacher at Copper Creek, told the school board. “I do not understand closing a school that does what it does so well.”

David said Copper Creek has “one of the largest special education populations in the district,” and it practices “full inclusion, with great fidelity,” for all students. She understands “budgets dictate closures, but these decisions must be made on more than operating costs.”

Virginia Morris and her family moved to Copper Creek because they saw the school and neighborhood as “a package deal. We never expected in a million years this would be taken away from us. … An entire community, and an entire neighborhood, completely gutted. Please find another solution.”

“Copper Creek is not just a building to house children,” said Megan Mascareno. “It is a community. It can’t be sold or given away to anybody else.”

Andrew Perkins suggested the board undertake an independent, third-party audit of Amphi’s finances. “The board has abdicated its financial responsibilities,” Perkins said. “Verify these recommendations, and see if that’s what’s best for our students and families.”

Brad Stein said the district is being “reactive, rather than visionary. This does not make Amphi ready for the future.” Closures would “prompt more parents to seek alternatives outside of Amphi.”

“We’re not in disagreement with the situation we’re in,” speaker January Multhrup said. “It’s scary. We’re asking you to look at other options.”

“I can appreciate the financial pressures,” Halley Lowry said. “Take everyone’s opinions and concerns into consideration.”

Lorella Ritzel said Copper Creek has been “one of the greatest gifts” for her family. “It is all the things I wanted for my girls.”

“Based on your comments, it sounds like you’ve already made up your minds,” speaker Caitlyn Provencio said. She described it as “a decision without adequate input from families. We deserve to be part of this decision-making process.”

“A lot of us moved to this neighborhood in large part because of Copper Creek Elementary,” the petition reads. “It is more than just a school — it is the heart of our community, the reason families put down roots here, and the place our children feel safe, supported and seen. Closing Copper Creek would not just relocate students; it would disrupt an entire community built around this school.”

Kids can walk or ride their bikes to Copper Creek, “something incredibly rare in this day and age,” the petition reads. “Parents trust that their kids are safe in this neighborhood, safe on these routes, and safe in this school. Losing the school means losing that daily experience of independence, connection, and safety that we worked so hard to find.

“Our children thrive here because of the teachers who know them, the staff who support them, and the friendships and routines they have built. Taking this school away means longer commutes, overcrowded classrooms at receiving schools, and a loss of the close-knit environment that makes learning possible.

“What hurts most is that this proposed closure is not about our community failing to meet enrollment standards — it’s about statewide funding changes, especially the expansion of ESA vouchers, draining money from public schools across Arizona,” the petition continued. “Families like mine who choose public school are now being asked to sacrifice our neighborhood school for a budget problem we did not create.”

Jaeger thanked parents for their communications. At their suggestion, the proposal for schools welcoming Copper Creek children has been changed; if it is closed, they would go to either Wilson K-8 or Harelson Elementary School, at the discretion of parents.

Harelson essentially shares a campus with Cross Middle School. Potentially, then, a student could spend nine years on either the Cross or Wilson campuses. And those schools would “welcome with open arms new students,” Jaeger said.