Phoenix elementary board terminates downtown ASU Preparatory Academy's lease

The Phoenix Elementary Governing Board has voted not to renew ASU Preparatory Academy’s lease for its downtown Phoenix campus on Fillmore Street.

The decision was made during a special meeting, which has frustrated many community members who feel their voice was left out of the conversation.

State Rep. Matt Gress also sent a letter to members of the PEGB, urging them to reconsider the choice not to renew ASU Prep's lease.

ASU Prep has been in the location for more than 15 years. It’s a K-12 school and currently serves about 1,200 students.

The Phoenix Elementary School District, though, said the school has been paying below market rent for years - and it said in a statement that it wants to make better use of the property to serve the district’s more than 5,000 students.

Marisol Garcia is an attendance clerk for the downtown Phoenix campus. She’s also a parent who said the school is perfect for her family:

”I needed something that was gonna engage my kids a little more and I found ASU Prep, and it just had all the things I needed,” she said, “Location, all three of my kids can go together, and they had an individualized learning plan that really sold me on the school.”

Garcia said her children have been engaged at ASU Prep in a way other schools haven’t been able to manage.

She said she’s disappointed by what she feels is a lack of transparency on the part of PESD, especially since the decision was made during a special virtual meeting instead of the regularly-scheduled meeting towards the end of January.

”I think they should really think about the collaboration, the partnership they have with ASU Prep - and really reconsider continuing to work with us,” she said. “Because this is more than just a building. This is a community, and we need to think about our students, our kids and our future.”