How Prop 123 Would Affect Arizona's Smallest School
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If it passes on May 17, Proposition 123 would pour billions of dollars into Arizona classrooms for the next decade. School districts big and small throughout the state are planning what they’ll do with those funds if they get them, even the humblest of schools.
Sasabe, Ariz., is among the state's smallest cities. Its lone quiet road seems to belie the 2010 census claim of just 54 residents. One can stand alongside Arizona 286, the two-lane blacktop highway leading into town, for 25 minutes and never see a single car. Though occasionally, very occasionally, a U.S. Border Patrol SUV will roll through. Visitors are rare enough that San Fernando Elementary School’s overseer Denise Ryan made a math problem out of the number of federal agents here compared to, well, anyone else.
"For a while there we were teaching the kids how to do ratios and proportions so on my way down I would count, okay, so I passed 15 total vehicles, and 10 of them were Border Patrol and one of them was an Altar Valley School bus and four of them were pickup trucks; now tell me the ratio of Border Patrol to school buses and pickup trucks to total vehicles," she said, laughing.
Her office manager, Christina Hughes, describes life here this way: "There’s not a stop sign in town, there’s not even a light. There’s not even a police station, no box stores, no traffic and no crime. The only thing wild down here is the animals," she says. Her own home abuts the border wall, making her nearest neighbor a home across the border in Mexico.
Ricky Hernandez is chief financial officer for the Pima County school district superintendent. He says out of the projected $3.5 billion that would be appropriated to schools if Proposition 123 passes, San Fernando would receive about $7,000 a year.
"The amount of money is not necessarily substantial for them but because they have such a small tax base, they don’t have the capacity to go after things like overrides or capital funding that other school districts do when they need extra dollars," Hernandez said.
The school started as an adobe schoolhouse in the 1800s. In 2007, San Fernando reopened as a new, though still tiny school. Hernandez says the money would go towards repairs to the school building. But he also needs to find a new teacher and part of the Proposition 123 funding could help pay for that.
San Fernando should have two full time teachers but it’s had trouble recruiting anyone.
Tracy Banker-Murktadza has taught here for 17 years. She says two teachers or not, the quality of the education is competitive with that taught in, say, Tucson.
"I would only say go back and look at old-school, one-room school houses. I follow the same kind of method," she says.
Teachers typically make more money in rural school districts. The same holds true here. Because Sasabe lies 75 miles from Tucson, a teacher here can earn about $7,000 more a year than a new teacher in the bigger city, where the average salary is $35,000.
Proposition 123’s per pupil funding will affect how much San Fernando receives. Last year, the school had 26 students. This year, 19, with no kindergartners and only one eighth grader. If enrollment drops below eight, the school could close.
