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Scottsdale School District Considers Future Of Navajo Elementary

The Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board will consider the status of school rebuild projects, including Navajo Elementary School at its meeting Tuesday.

A fire at Scottsdale’s Navajo Elementary School in August caused so much damage students had to be relocated.

About 300 Navajo elementary students now show up for class each day at a campus on Oak Street and will do so through the rest of the school year. The school's pre-school programs were moved to Hohokam and Yavapai elementary schools.

Navajo was was built in 1960.

District staff has estimated repairs could cost up to $6 million at an August 30 governing board meeting. Insurance would pay for damage, but the district could use bond funding to enhance the rebuild.

Cost isn’t the only factor being considered in planning the school’s future.

Research commissioned by the district shows Navajo Elementary has some of the highest losses of students in the district.

The governing board could consider several options at its meeting Tuesday night including rebuilding, renovating or closing the school.

“It was a (much-needed) community center in south Scottsdale,” Elie Goodman, who has two children attending the school, told The Scottsdale Progress. “The thought of that going away devastates me.”

The governing board is also weighing the future of several bond-funded projects after years of declining student enrollment throughout the district.

Mariana Dale was an assistant digital editor and senior field corrsepondent at KJZZ from 2016 to 2019.