SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Prosecutors say Scottsdale Unified School District violated Arizona’s open meeting law while a superintendent-appointed committee shaped options to close campuses — a finding that arrives days before the governing board’s Oct. 6 closure vote.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office reviewed a complaint from a Phase 2 committee member. That panel, stocked with school representatives and led by people the superintendent chose, produced three closure packages aimed at declining enrollment. Because the committee wrapped its work in July, the county said it was too late to order fixes to those past meetings, but it urged the board to rethink using advisory groups appointed that way.
Committee member Ellen Douglass said members asked early whether sessions would be recorded and were told no, with materials instead posted online. Parent and committee member Samantha Fahndrich argued the process also shortchanged the substance: options leaned on capacity figures, she said, without letting the group fully weigh finances or invent alternatives to closing schools. Laguna Elementary, she noted, appears on all three board options even though cost data might have painted a different picture.
A district spokesperson defended the analysis, saying staff examined enrollment trends, facility use, operational and financial impacts, programs, geography, transportation and effects on families. Disagreement with an option, the statement said, should not be confused with an absence of process.
Parents packing board meetings now have both a legal cloud and a calendar deadline. Even without a court-ordered do-over of the committee, the county’s letter gives closure opponents a public-record argument as trustees decide which campuses — if any — to shutter next week.