TUSD Sup’t adds Magee Middle School to possible closure list; students would move to Sabino

The superintendent of the Tucson Unified School District is proposing to close Joseph W. Magee Middle School and have those 6th-8th grade students attend the campus of Sabino High School.

Students currently attending Magee would start at Sabino at the start of the next school year, according to a Thursday announcement by TUSD.

Sabino currently hosts students in grades 9–12.

Magee, 8300 E. Speedway, is about seven miles away from Sabino, 5000 N. Bowes Rd., on the Northeast Side.

The East Side middle school is the fourth campus that Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo has slated for closure in a district-wide process to reconfigure schools as TUSD grapples with shrinking enrollment and budget constraints.

This is the first school closure announcement that has involved secondary schools, rather than elementaries.

Any closures would have to be approved by the elected members of the TUSD Governing Board.

Trujillo has worked for months with a 31-member committee of community members and elected officials to come up with a list of schools that could be slated for closure,.

The committee and Trujillo assessed numerous factors including class sizes, empty classroom space, transportation and arts, physical education, special education, preschool and extracurricular programs available at each site.

Up to 10 schools could be shuttered at Trujillo’s suggestion.

TUSD has announced one “sending school” and one “receiving school” every day since Monday, with plans to hold a press conference on Oct. 27.

Trujillo previously told reporters he planned to meet with the communities of each school he would be recommending for closure before making those plans public, and TUSD lead spokesperson confirmed that was why the district was sending out one closure announcement per day.

The district announced in the days prior that closures at Hudlow Elementary School, Alice F. Dunham Elementary School and Gertrude Cragin Elementary School could shut down.

In each case so far, students would be moved to new schools in August 2027, the start of the next academic year.

Trujillo in September, however, called the idea of closing schools as early as 2027 or 2028 “a little ambitious.”

The Governing Board plans to vote on whether to accept or reject Trujillo’s school closure plans at a meeting on Dec. 8.

Trujillo said the board would discuss the matter during at least two study sessions beforehand.

Though they weren’t mentioned in the daily news releases on potential school closures, TUSD also held a series of public meetings intended to garner feedback from parents, staff and students.

Parents who participated said they were particularly concerned about class sizes after the reconfiguration and what school programs would still be available.

Attendees also asked about the possibility of staff layoffs, what would happen to vacant facilities and how the district would support students adjusting to new schools.