TUSD could move Secrist Middle School students into Santa Rita High

The Tucson Unified School District may close Secrist Middle School, along with at least five other schools, in a reconfiguration spurred by shrinking enrollment.

TUSD’s superintendent of the Tucson Unified School District is asking to move students in the 6th–8th grades now at Delbert L. Secrist Middle School to Santa Rita High School in two years.

Gabriel Trujillo, who is recommending school closures and consolidations as part of a district-wide reconfiguration process, is suggesting that Secrist Middle students start attending Santa Rita in August 2028.

Middle and high school students would be kept separate under the superintendent’s plan. Middle schoolers would be relegated to a “secondary academy,” or separate building, on the Santa Rita campus.

Teachers and staff at Secrist, 3400 S. Houghton Rd., would also be transferred to Santa Rita. Santa Rita High sits about five miles west of the middle school, at 3951 S. Pantano Rd.

The two schools are about a 10-minute drive apart from each other, separated by the Pantano Wash.

The TUSD Governing Board is set to approve a list of schools to be closed, proposed by Trujillo, at a Dec. 8 meeting.

Governing Board member Sadie Shaw announced that two study sessions, plus a public hearing on Nov. 17, will take place beforehand.

The district since late August has openly considered reconfiguring its schools, citing declining enrollment and budget limitations.
TUSD has, each weekday since Oct. 19, announced one school that could close in the process.

A press conference on the possible consolidations is slated for Tuesday afternoon at Palo Verde High Magnet School.

Trujillo previously told reporters he wanted to meet with the communities of each school on his list before making his plans public.

TUSD lead spokesperson Karla Escamilla confirmed that was the reasoning behind the district’s decision to announce one proposed school closure per weekday.
Most of the schools that Trujillo recommends for closure are elementaries.

On Thursday, TUSD announced Trujillo’s proposal to consolidate Magee Middle School into Sabino High School, located seven miles away.
Secrist Middle is the only school thus far that would be shuttered at the start of the 2028 school year.

All other announced schools are slated to close at the start of the next academic year, August 2027.
Trujillo previously said the idea of closing schools within the next two years was “a little ambitious.”

The superintendent and a 31-member committee of community members and elected officials worked for months to come up with a list of schools to shut down.

Their decision-making process included talks about empty classroom space, class sizes, transportation and preschool, plus the different arts, extracurricular, preschool, physical education and special education programs offered at each site.

Class sizes, school programs and space left empty after the reconfiguration were major concerns among parents who attended a series of public meetings hosted by TUSD in September and early October.

Some parents also questioned whether there would be any staff layoffs and how the district would support students as they transitioned to new schools.