Public school closures are continuing throughout the Valley. The Alhambra Elementary district in west Phoenix is the latest to join the list.
The district will close Valencia Newcomer School, which works with resettlement agencies to take in families who are new to the United States.
Alhambra will also consolidate Choice Learning Academy and Westwood Elementary School. At a meeting Thursday night, Superintendent Cecilia Maes said the district lost more than 500 students in one year alone.
“We get a little more than $12,000 per student," Maes said. "If you multiply 500 times $12,000, we’re talking about $6 million that we were — if you think about what we were expecting from the state.”
In 2023, Valencia served 140 K-8th graders. This year, the school was down to 23 students. The school’s principal told KJZZ that it was not receiving new students due to a Trump administration ban on refugee admissions.
The decision will turn Westwood into a K-8 school. Maes said several families had withdrawn from Westwood after a neighboring charter school knocked on their doors.
“Reminding them that Westwood only goes to fourth grade and if they wanted their children to experience a K-8 where their children could be at one school for their entire K-8 experience that they should come on over to that particular charter school,” Maes said.
