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I write as a parent of three Copper Creek elementary students and as a member of the Copper Creek PTO board. Every day, my husband and I walk our children to school from the house we purchased in the Copper Creek neighborhood for that very purpose. Our family is significantly impacted by the Amphi District Superintendent’s decision to close Copper Creek and divide its students up to attend three other receiving elementary schools. While I can accept the unfortunate economic and political factors that are driving the decision to consolidate certain schools, I cannot accept the lack of transparency or the ad hoc nature in which the decision appears to have been made.

On November 19, my family attended what was billed as a “community meeting� to discuss the decision to close Copper Creek, but community members were not permitted to speak at the meeting. Instead, Superintendent Jagger spoke for more than 1.5 hours about his decision, and then audience questions (which had been filtered by District employees) were read by a District employee and answered by the Superintendent. The message was clear — our voices don’t matter.

During the meeting, Superintendent Jagger advertised his decision to close Copper Creek as the path of least resistance and most economic savings, but he misrepresented or failed to disclose certain factors that are pertinent to both of those decisions points.

The District has repeatedly and emphatically underreported the number of students who attend Copper Creek, which both inflates the average operating cost per student at that school, and understates the task of finding room for Copper Creek students at other elementary schools. The District has also explained that it will save significant operating costs by closing Copper Creek instead of other schools, like Painted Sky. But, the District isn’t actually shutting down the Copper Creek campus, as it will continue to pay significant costs to keep that building up and running for the Child Find program housed there. If it’s true that all Copper Creek teachers and staff will remain employed by the District (fingers crossed), and if it’s true that the District will continue to keep the Copper Creek building operational, how much money is the District really saving by kicking all of the Copper Creek students off their home campus?

Superintendent Jagger has espoused his love for small-school culture and his desire to keep those cultures intact. But, instead of closing Painted Sky and moving its entire student body population over to Copper Creek — a campus that has room for both schools to remain intact — the Superintendent has decided to divide Copper Creek’s student body up and send those students to three different schools. The Copper Creek identity is being completely erased. It is difficult to understand why Superintendent Jagger made this decision if school culture is paramount.

What is the real reason Superintendent Jagger has chosen to close Copper Creek and keep Painted Sky open? Amphi families deserve to know.