Catalina Foothills recruits TUSD pupils

Catalina Foothills Unified School District has received 342 applications for enrollment from students living inside the Tucson Unified School District area.

Of the 342 applications, 54 percent (184) came from students attending charter or private schools, said Mary Kamerzell, superintendent of Catalina Foothills.

It's the first time TUSD area students have been allowed to leave and be accepted by other districts.

That's because in September, the TUSD governing board repealed a policy that limited students' choices based on racial or ethnic balances at certain schools after U.S. District Judge David C. Bury ruled the policy unconstitutional Aug. 21.

In total, the Catalina Foothills district received 486 applications for enrollment from students outside the district this year, she said.

"We actively looked to recruit TUSD students when that district reversed its policy on open enrollment," Kamerzell said.

Kamerzell said her office will notify applicants by April 1 whether they were accepted. "We are going to try to accept them all," Kamerzell said.

Catalina Foothills began a campaign focusing on TUSD students late last fall, Kamerzell said, and began accepting applications Dec. 1.

Of the 349 TUSD-area applications, 179 were for a Catalina Foothills elementary school, 93 for a middle school and 70 for Catalina Foothills High, the district's only high school. The district has four elementary and two middle schools.

About 500 out-of-district students already attend Catalina Foothills schools this year, up from about 250 in 2004, according to data provided by the district.

Most of the new applicants from TUSD come from areas adjoining Catalina Foothills, Kamerzell said, while the second largest number of out-of-district open enrollment applications comes from Amphitheater Public Schools.

"Geographic proximity has played a role," she said. "It's nice for parents to have choices."

Kamerzell's reasoning for actively recruiting students from other districts was based on declining enrollment in her district.

Kamerzell attributed the enrollment decline to several factors, including:

• A shifting demographic with more households without school-age children. "Parents still live in the house, but the kids have been educated and moved on," she said.

• Unaffordable housing due to skyrocketing home prices and the conversion of apartments to condominiums, which has displaced several families with young children.

"Our goal is to achieve operational efficiency," she said. "If we have schools full to capacity, we can spend more money in the classrooms."

Enrollment at Catalina Foothills schools has dropped from 5,032 students in 2004 to 4,644 in 2008, according to data provided by the district.