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Student safety is a DVUSD priority

BY DR. CURTIS FINCH

Foothills Focus Contributing Writer

On April 20, 1999, the life of every student changed with one word—Columbine. School shootings occurred in America before that event, but Columbine changed our society forever when two high school seniors came to their local high school and murdered 12 students and a teacher. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in American history.

For the next two decades following the tragedy, school districts throughout the United States began upgrading school facilities with fencing, cameras, safety enforcements, security officers and increased mental health and bullying programs for students. Today’s schools in America are dramatically safer from outside perpetrators than 1999, but school shootings still occur.

Many years ago, Maricopa County entered into an arrangement with Deer Valley Unified School District (DVUSD) to design a new school, Boulder Creek High School (BCHS), with a 24,000-square-foot, County (joint-use) Library on the same site. The dual-purpose library included Anthem regional residents sharing the space in concert with the local high school students.

There was an initial financial contribution by the county as well as development fees from Anthem-area residents to expand the initial BCHS library space and make it larger so both could use it. Since that day, there has been no charge to the county for rent, maintenance, heating/cooling or cleaning these past two decades.

Today, this rent-free arrangement between DVUSD and the Maricopa Public Library is no longer considered legal; school districts “cannot give away the property of a district even for the most worthy purpose,” per Arizona Supreme Court rulings. Therefore, DVUSD will be working on a new five-year lease arrangement over the next 12 months to find a good, safe and legal solution for both entities to co-exist, while increasing the student use of the library and keeping the asset available for the community.

The BCHS student population is larger than it was 20 years ago, with over 2,300 students enjoying an out-

standing educational experience on a beautiful campus; the surrounding regional Anthem community is larger as well. Currently, all community members have access to drive vehicles on to the BCHS campus all hours of the school day. Parking is so limited that school students must park across the street at a local church, CCV, and cross a busy street to school. Library patrons walk right up to the school entrance unabated, because the library entrance is located next door to the high school entrance. For students and adults who look the same in size and development, it is very difficult for school staff and library security to know the difference between a high school student and an adult who may want to cause harm. I am confident that the county and DVUSD can work together on a new agreement going forward that is legal and allows the residents of northern Maricopa County to continue to use the facility for community use, but better separate the adults from students during the school day. Dr. Curtis Finch is the superintendent of DVUSD and can be reached at superintendent@dvusd.org

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