Scottsdale Unified School District violated Arizona’s Open Meeting Law by excluding the public from the committee meetings that shaped its school closure plans, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has determined, with the finding landing just days before the governing board’s October 6 vote on closing multiple campuses.
The finding centers on the Phase II Design Advisory Team, a group appointed by the superintendent that included representatives from each school in the district, according to KTAR News 92.3 FM. The committee developed three school closure options that went before the governing board, reviewing data from every school in the district as it worked. The county attorney’s office responded to a complaint filed by committee member Mike Bengert, and in a September 16 letter said, as reported by azfreenews.com, that a governing board cannot sidestep public meeting requirements by informally directing a committee to do public work on its behalf.
According to the same account, the county’s letter stated plainly that “the MCAO determined that Dr. Menzel and the SUSD Governing Board once again violated the rights of SUSD parents and the public.” The letter also noted that SUSD had already been warned once before by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office that the law does not permit a board to evade public meeting requirements this way. The county attorney’s office could not order the district to fix the violation, but it urged the governing board to reconsider its use of superintendent-appointed advisory groups and advised members to acknowledge the investigation at their next public meeting, assuring constituents the committee was never meant to cut the public out of the policymaking process.
How the Committee Worked Behind Closed Doors
The Phase II Design Advisory Team was convened in March, according to the district’s own Phase II page, and it concluded its work in July. Committee member Ellen Douglass said members discussed whether to record their meetings and ultimately decided not to, planning instead to post links and other materials to the district’s website, per KTAR. Samantha Fahndrich, a Laguna Elementary parent who also served on the committee, was among those involved in the process that produced the three closure options.
Per KTAR’s reporting, the committee did not use financial numbers in its deliberations and did not allow members to develop alternatives to closing schools altogether, instead basing its three closure options on school capacity figures. The district’s own committee page describes a broader review that included enrollment trends, facility usage, transportation data and preliminary savings by model, but the KTAR account specifically states that financial figures were absent from the committee’s own discussions and that alternatives to closure were off the table.
Three Options, One School Common to All of Them
District materials describe three configurations that emerged from the process. Option A would move Cheyenne Traditional to the current Copper Ridge campus while shifting Laguna Prep and Redfield to the current Cheyenne campus, according to the district’s school repurposing page. Option B would merge Desert Canyon Elementary and Desert Canyon Middle into a single K-8 school at the Copper Ridge campus and close Laguna Prep, while Option C would close both Copper Ridge and Laguna Prep outright.
Laguna Elementary was the only school that appeared in all three options before the board, according to abc15.com. KTAR reported that Laguna Elementary could have absorbed students from other closed schools had the committee analyzed operating costs more closely — a step the panel’s financial-free process did not take. The seven schools under review had a combined capacity of 7,194 students but just 3,296 students currently enrolled, according to ktar.com, which also reported that any of the three options would save the district more than $2.5 million. Separately, the East Valley Tribune reported student-impact ranges of 2,126 to 2,232 for Option A, 2,132 to 2,153 for Option B, and 773 to 872 for Option C.
Declining Enrollment Behind the Push
District officials have pointed to years of shrinking enrollment, rising costs and growing competition from other schools as the driving force behind the closure push. Scottsdale Unified’s enrollment considered the future of every school and current enrollment trends, examining facility utilization, operational and financial impacts, academic programs, geography and transportation, and potential effects on students, staff and families, according to the district’s own description of its process. The district states on its enrollment review page that the governing board makes the final decisions on any recommendations brought forward by administration.
Enrollment figures vary by source: KJZZ reported a 23% decline over the past decade, while the East Valley Tribune put the cumulative drop at nearly 15% and Fox 10 quoted the superintendent saying enrollment has fallen by more than 6,000 students since 2010. Copper Ridge alone saw a 66.3% enrollment decline over the past 10 years, per ktar.com. The Tribune also reported that elementary enrollment districtwide is projected to drop another 1.8% to 6.8% over the next five years, even as nearby charter networks have grown sharply — Great Hearts enrollment rose 110% over the decade and Basis enrollment spiked nearly 200%, according to the same report.
A Scottsdale Unified spokesperson said disagreement with any particular option should not be confused with an absence of process or analysis, per KTAR’s reporting. The district has said it could consider closing more schools after the 2026-27 school year if enrollment keeps falling, according to ktar.com.
