Two more Scottsdale Unified School District schools will close at the end of the 2026-27 school year, the district's governing board decided in a split vote.
A meeting on Oct. 6 turned heated as the board cast their votes, ultimately choosing an option that will shutter Copper Ridge School and Laguna Prep at the end of the school year. The board considered three options recommended by a committee that gave them different school closure scenarios.
The option to close Copper Ridge and Laguna would save the most money at about $2.7 million, according to district documents. Copper Ridge students will move to Desert Canyon elementary and middle schools, while Laguna students will redistribute among Cochise, Anasazi and Redfield elementary schools.
Laguna opened in 1987, while Copper Ridge opened in 2001. The change will affect between 700 and 900 students, according to district documents. The other two closure options would have affected more than 2,000 students each.
According to district data, enrollment has steadily declined since 2010, resulting in a loss of over 6,000 students by the 2025-2026 school year. The district linked those enrollment trends to an aging population, as well as increasing competition from other forms of education, like charter or private schools.
The district closed Pima and Echo Canyon elementary schools at the end of the 2025-2026 school year.
Scottsdale Union board clashes in split vote on school closures
The room was tense as board members Matthew Pittinsky, Donna Lewis and Mike Sharkey voted to close the schools and Carine Werner and Amy Carney voted against the closures and asked to put off a vote altogether. The two have vocally opposed the district’s school closures, often voting in opposition to the rest of the board.
Carney and Werner expressed concerns that the district had not explored options aside from closing schools, such as ramping up marketing to attract families to the district or partnering with organizations in the community.
“Before permanently closing a neighborhood school, I believe we should be able to demonstrate that we have seriously pursued strategies, programming and partnerships, giving our schools meaningful opportunities to stay open,” Carney said.
The three clashed when Pittinsky accused Carney and Werner, who also serves in the Arizona Senate, of supporting the state’s billion-dollar Empowerment Scholarship Account program.
Pittinsky criticized those who support the ESA program expressing surprise when public school boards are faced with the decision to close schools because of fewer students. While 71% of school-age children within the boundaries attended a Scottsdale district school in 2010, that number has dropped to 55%, showing that competition is driving students out of public schools, Pittinsky said.
Carney in turn accused Pittinsky of deflecting his vote to close the schools onto her, saying her children have attended schools in the district despite their ability to enroll in the ESA program.
“I have never felt the need to bring up that you send your own child to private school,” Carney said.
Sharkey voted for the closures, saying the district has to invest in its programs, facilities and employees instead of continuing to spend money to keep the schools open. But he said the district needs to focus on developing new schools of choice, which are schools that have open enrollment, to draw people from outside the district, Sharkey said. Scottsdale Unified current has two schools of choice — Cheyenne Traditional School and Pueblo Elementary School.
Lewis cited a need for the board to make a decision to allow affected families to plan for the next school year.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Scottsdale Unified to close 2 schools, affecting hundreds of students
