My letter is not meant to have any bad reflections on the Fountain Hills Unified School District, its teachers, staff or administration. Yes, good schools are important to attract families moving to a town like ours. Unfortunately, we don’t have affordable homes. Apartments like Daybreak don’t work to add to our school enrollment.
About the “myth” that “if” the Daybreak project gets built it will add to enrollment in all of our schools. First, it has been approved that the project will have 130 designated apartments for people over 55 years of age. There will only be 18 three-bedroom apartments, 10 studios, 80 one-bedrooms and 162 two-bedrooms in phase one. No guarantee families will use the three-bedroom apartments or go to our schools.
We live in a state that has open enrollment, so that is why many families in our town chose to send their children to Scottsdale schools. The Daybreak apartments are only 10 minutes from those schools. I don’t think it’s hard to believe that most of the working families who would live on Palisades and Shea Blvds. will work in Scottsdale or Phoenix. Basis has two schools, one on 136th St. and the other on 128th St., both off Shea. They have a #1 rating. Another charter school, Mission Montessori, is on 129th St. off Shea. We have Fountain Hills Charter School, a tuition-free school, K-8.
All of the above are the main reasons why we have a lower enrollment problem. Next, Keystone apartments only has nine three-bedroom apartments, 46 one-bedrooms and 81 two-bedrooms. They sound like family-friendly apartments to you? The market for those buildings are for the 55 and older; their profit line. It’s not about school enrollment.
