Deer Valley Unified School District is attempting to rezone many schools for the 2026-2027 school year, including Union Park. With all of the issues during this decision-making process, we need to delay this rushed decision until we can come up with a solution that best fits the community's needs.

Rezoning process mishandled by the district:

• Rezoning committee asked for transportation data for families in school zone and never received it. The district still pushed forward with proposed decisions anyway. No transportation data was used throughout this process.
• Data is wrong on number of students "affected.". Committee has said 35 immersion students and about 200 total students are being rezoned. Numbers directly from Union Park clarify that 70 immersion students and almost 300 total students will be potentially rezoned.
• 25/26 demographer report is still not available online. Is the most accurate info being used? If so, why don't we have access to it?
• 500 student count discrepancy in the projected data between the 24/26 demographers report and slides shown in committee meetings and at public forums. How do we trust the projections given, and which are accurate? 
• Clear map of proposed boundary given AFTER committee voted on the boundary to present to the board.
• Unclear map caused confusion in committee members. At least one member voted on a misunderstood boundary line, regardless of vocally confirming boundaries at a meeting.
• Union Park is not accurately represented in the rezoning committee. Norterra Canyon has 3 representatives & a strong advocate in the community. Union Park has one, who also works for the district. We need representation for such impactful decisions to our community.
• Rezoning committee did not consider suggestions made from the community, & instead focused on damage control. They spent significant time discussing other boundary lines for areas with community representation. It's obvious UP doesn't have representation in the rezoning committee, and careful consideration is not happening.
• Communications about the making of the rezoning committee, meetings, and updates have been non-existent or minimal up until right before boundaries were being voted on.
•  Kindergarten (and all grades) are already enrolled for the 26/27 school year. They should have the information needed before making decisions for their future.
• Communication has been conflicting. Verbally assured from DVUSD employees that siblings of students in the Spanish Immersion program being zoned out will have priority/get in, but the website says otherwise. Further, from the beginning we've been told students can be grandfathered into the school they may be zoned out of. But the superintendent said he would "recommend" grandfathering to the board. Not all information is consistent.
• Rezoning committee members names were not available until after the proposed boundaries were voted on, despite being told weeks before that the info was available online. To add, at least one member represents an areas they don't live in, district position not listed, etc. 
• After working to push the M&O override through to keep funding for the SI program at our neighborhood school, we are now looking at moving neighborhood schools. Mistrust in the district is becoming apparent in the community.

The entire process has been very rushed. There hasn't been enough time for relevant information to be used, correct information to be given, or for considering other options presented by the community. Families have not been given enough time to prepare and consider alternative options.

 

Spanish Immersion (SI) program is not considered in this rezone:

• In rezoning committee meetings, the complex nature of the SI program was not taken into consideration.
• The UP webpage before signing the SI commitment form reads, "Success in the DVUSD Spanish Immersion Program requires a partnership between Spanish staff and parents. This includes a commitment of DVUSD staff and a commitment of DVUSD Spanish program parents." Where is the district's commitment to the kids who are being zoned out? We have upheld our end.
• On the SI commitment form, it reads:  "6. I understand that learning a second language takes time. I am committed to keeping my child in DLI for the duration of the program K-8 knowing that language proficiency takes many years." Families are committed to this program. How can they keep their commitment & language proficiency thus far if being zoned out and need transportation?
• The SI commitment form also reads: "9. I understand I must provide transportation to the school if I do not reside within the school's boundaries." This was signed while residing in school boundaries, never intending the need to transport kids to school. How were we to predict a rezone? Why are we now expected to provide transportation to the school when the district zoned us out?
• Students must start the SI program in Kinder or 1st grade. Students rezoned in 2nd grade + can only be replaced in the SI program by Spanish speakers or students who were previously in a SI program. Spots will be left vacant in the SI program if the rezoning goes through.
• Spanish Immersion is not offered at Norterra Canyon. A Spanish class is offered 1-3 times per week in some grades, with a potential Spanish class for 7/8 grades. This is not sufficient for immersion students to continue their language learning. SI students will lose their Spanish and hard work they've committed to in a program with long-term results.
• We aren't "attached to our mascots" as Dr. Finch said. We want to keep our hard work in the Spanish Immersion program that we have invested so much time and effort into.
• The disparate effect (discrimination) will be obvious as the lack of transportation will disadvantage those students who want to continue in their hard work and SI language proficiency, but can't find transportation to UP. 
• In the recent community feedback from the district's survey, the #2 most important element of student's education was "stability in current academic programs." How is this rezone keeping the SI program steady?
• The oldest SI grade is 6th grade. Pushing through now with a rezone wouldn't allow the first students in the program to finish their commitment & well-earned language proficiency. It would also skew the SI data.

Negative community effects:

• Breaking up neighborhoods and communities is very disruptive to the community. Some areas have been rezoned 3 times in the last decade or so. This poses a huge risk to mental health of students, and burdens families. Is the projection data wrong, or is DVUSD simply being this careless with our kids?
• The quick drop of UP enrollment puts our school at HUGE risk of losing valuable teachers and administrators. 
• Many moved into this area because of the neighborhood school, programs, and with the intent/need to use the bus to get children to school. What do those families do now? 
• A main goal of the rezoning committee is supposed to be keeping communities and neighborhoods together. But they have only considered one option that splits a main neighborhood in an unreasonable way.

We aren't asking for nothing to be done. We don't want an overcrowded school. But we do want the proper time, effort, & data to find a solution that works best for the school & community.

Call to action:

• Please sign & share this petition to delay the vote!
• Attend the Governing Board meeting to show support and/or comment
  • Tuesday, March 10 at 7pm
  • DVUSD Governing Board Room - 20402 N 15th Ave (Beardsley & 15th)
  • At a “Call to Public” section of the meeting, community members can directly address the board. If you'd like to speak at the meeting, you need to submit a request upon arrival before the meeting begins.
• Email your input to the board (first 5 listed) and following email addresses of those involved. The board votes on March 10:
  • steve.bottfeld@dvusd.org
    paul.carver@dvusd.org
    karen.pack@dvusd.org
    stephanie.simacek@dvusd.org
    kim.fisher@dvusd.org
    future@dvusd.org
    gayle.galligan@dvusd.org
    heather.mock@dvusd.org
    superintenent@dvusd.org
• Share this info with your friends/neighbors so we can work together as a community!