Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo is recommending the closure of Magee Middle School effective next school year. If the governing board agrees in the next few months, Magee students would merge onto Sabino High School’s campus.
It’s the first time during this round of consolidations that the district is suggesting the closure of a middle school. When Sabino High opened in 1972, spokesperson Karla Escamilla says it was a junior and senior high school. The junior high was closed, however, 10 years later, as part of the desegregation settlement agreement, Escamilla says.
Magee is a B-rated middle school located on Speedway Boulevard between Pantano Road and Camino Seco. Its 270 students are in grades 6-8. Sabino High School, an A-rated 9-12 school, is about a 15 minute drive north near the intersection of Snyder and Harrison roads.
Both Magee and Sabino are on the district’s east side, a region Trujillo has said has a smaller population of K-12 aged children which makes it more vulnerable to school closures. Four of the six elementary schools named in TUSD’s consolidation plan so far are also on the east side of Craycroft Road.
Escamilla says more closure recommendations will be announced this week. The governing board is set to vote on the recommendations on Dec. 8. Next Tuesday, Oct. 27, the district will hold a press conference and a public hearing for commentary.
The district held a series of community engagement sessions last month to hear feedback from families, staff and residents.
You can read more about the foreseeable closure plan here.
TUSD's Teenage Parent High School enrolls students from grades 6-12 and Mary Meredith is its only in-person K-12 school.
