Pima JTED mulls bond plans, as opposition stews among Tucson school districts

Rapidly rising enrollment at the Pima Joint Technical Education District’s central campuses is forcing the governing board to consider funding options. Other Tucson-area school districts don’t like how it’s shaping up.

Two of them are taking action this week to let their feelings be known. More could be speaking up in the coming weeks.

JTED serves 30,000 students district-wide and about 27,000 are in satellite campuses, while 3,000 are in central JTED campuses. Students graduate at rates of 99 percent, compared to traditional districts in Arizona with dropout rates approaching 25 percent.

The program had to turn away 400 students this school year for want of space and facilities.

JTED (pronounced J-TED in normal parlance) has seen a 77 percent spike in enrollment on their seven central campuses and 16 percent increases in enrollment at numerous satellite campuses, said district spokesman Greg D’Anna. He also said one idea being floated is to hold a bond election in November 2026.

“CTE (career and technical training) is the one
solution in public education that has worked,” D’Anna said, comparing
vocational training to school choice and charter schools.

The JTED board is early in the decision-making process, D’Anna said. He questioned why there is opposition at all without a real proposal to complain about.

“We’re looking at ways we can better serve JTED students in satellite campuses and students across the board,” he said.

A letter circulating among local school district governing boards says not enough funding will go to JTED’s satellite operations, many of which are co-located on their campuses. 

The Catalina Foothills school board cast a vote endorsing the opposition letter on Tuesday and Tanque Verde Unified School District voted Wednesday to do the same.

The school districts’ letter, addressed to the JTED board, reads in part:

“We are concerned that Pima JTED has lost its way. When voters approved the formation of Pima JTED in 2006, they embraced the vision of a decentralized model that would ensure students across the region could access high quality CTE (career and technical education) programs at their local high schools. To this day, 90 percent of students who participate in CTE courses through Pima JTED do so in satellite programs at their local high school—in real numbers, this translates to 28,800 of JTED’s current 32,000 students. When leased land programs (Pima JTED-owned buildings at local high schools) are included in the analysis, the percentage increases to over 92% of JTED students participating in CTE courses at local high schools.”

The letter is a group effort meant to highlight concerns of multiple districts, said Julie Farbarik, CatFoot spokeswoman. 

Just because they went first, doesn’t mean they are the only ones worried, she said. 

“The letter in question was a collaborative effort involving multiple county superintendents who shared concerns about the proposed bond’s focus and allocation of resources,” Farbarik said in an email.  

So JTED may face practical reality and political reality. Practically, growth is causing central facilities to burst at the seams. Politically, surrounding districts shouldn’t feel shortchanged.