Parents, staff make final pleas | News

Parents and staff from two elementary schools pleaded with the Amphitheater Public Schools board to keep their schools open. Five people addressed the Amphi board on Jan. 13, before its unanimous vote to close Copper Creek, Holaway, Nash and Donaldson elementary schools at the end of this school year.

“We beg you to listen,” said Jennifer Skinner, a Copper Creek parent.

“We implore you to postpone your decision tonight to close Copper Creek,” said parent Sharron Lovemore.

“No one is ignoring reality,” said Lorella Ritzel, a Copper Creek staff member, who acknowledged declining enrollment and shrinking funds. “We’re asking for more creative thinking and problem solving” objectives identified in Amphi’s Promise to a Graduate,” she said.

Holaway parent Caitlyn Provencio thanked the board “for showing me we are nothing but a bottom line.” The closures demonstrate “how little (the district) values families.” She’ll be looking to place her children elsewhere.

“It feels like you made your decision long ago,” said Holaway parent Amanda Griffin. For all children, particularly those with special needs, “this is a big, scary change. You’re asking my child and others with special needs to lose everything. Children should not be expected to pay an emotional price for a system decision.

This reverses years of progress toward inclusive education.” Lovemore, an Amphi graduate and herself the parent of a special needs child who attended Copper Creek, said there is “a very real human cost at stake.” She said 30% of Copper Creek’s students have special needs, and the school has a “deeply rooted,” inclusive structure for all students that is “truly special.”

Relocating special needs students, who “already struggle with transition,”  raises “serious equity and civil rights concerns,” Lovemore said. “Consider closure of Painted Sky (Elementary School), and relocate the school as a whole three miles to Copper Creek.” 

Copper Creek Elementary School is “the heart of our community,” Skinner said. Its closure will “disrupt families,” and result in a potential decrease in property values, she suggested. “Consolidation will only erode the root fabric that makes our community strong.”

Skinner believes the district has been “far from forthcoming” about a future use for the Copper Creek campus. Community residents “deserve full disclosure,” she said.

“There are so many ways we haven’t been heard, and it’s so disappointing, Ritzel said.

On Feb. 17, Copper Creek expects to learn if it is an A-plus designated school. “Do you really want to close an A-plus school?” Ritzel asked the board.