Mesa Public Schools braces for layoffs amid enrollment declines, rising costs

Arizona’s largest school district has announced that it will eliminate some positions next school year, due to declining enrollment.

During a study session on Tuesday night, the district’s governing board listened to a presentation showing enrollment has declined by more than 10,000 students since 2012. They expect to lose another 1,800 in the next year, and fewer students means less funding.

Scott Thompson, assistant superintendent of business and support services, said staffing makes up 90% of the district’s budget.

“I know people look at it and say, ‘well, can we just stop buying pencils and paper?’ And we’re looking at all those things, but that’s only 10% of our budget," Thompson said. "At the end of the day, with these numbers, at this size, we’ve got to look at staffing.”

Superintendent Andi Fourlis said the decline in students coupled with rising operations costs and decreases in federal and state funding will cause some employees to lose their jobs.

“We have analyzed every organizational chart by department and we’ve started the hard work of identifying what reductions would need to be made in order to reduce redundancy and at the same time maintain all of the work that needs to be done across Mesa Public Schools," Fourlis said.

The staff members affected are expected to be informed by Feb. 7. An MPS spokesperson told KJZZ News they won't have the official number of layoffs until the Feb. 11 board meeting.