More than 150 parents attended a town hall on August 17 to question EDUPRIZE Schools administrators about recent staffing reductions, financial status, and the charter system’s relationship with its management company. Superintendent Michael Gordon-Smith and Executive Director Robin Yeargain spent the evening answering both pre-submitted written questions and live inquiries from attendees.
The session followed an August 12 letter sent to families outlining reductions in force at the Gilbert and Queen Creek campuses. Administrators stated that over 200 enrolled students failed to report for the first day of school, leaving the system approximately 130 students below budgeted projections. The full financial impact could not be calculated until Arizona’s official 10-day enrollment count was completed.
During the meeting, Yeargain detailed specific losses at each location. The Queen Creek campus lost four interventionist assistants, 10 kindergarten aides, two office support staff members, a library assistant, and one site-based substitute.
At the Gilbert campus, reductions included four interventionists, an ELA coach, a math coach, two kindergarten support staff, six teachers, four office staff members, an IT assistant, a Flex art teacher, and one site-based substitute.
Gordon-Smith explained that the layoffs utilized a three-tier system. Cuts in Tier 3, which involved employees with the most direct academic contact with students, were applied only at the Gilbert campus. He noted that Gilbert’s payroll consumes 76% of its revenue compared to 55% at Queen Creek, describing the former as unsustainable. Approximately 70% of this year’s total reductions occurred at Gilbert.
Addressing the elimination of kindergarten aides, Gordon-Smith said the positions were created to support behavioral needs arising during the COVID-19 era and were never intended to be permanent. He acknowledged limited research on the academic impact of classroom aides but stated that certified kindergarten teachers in classes of 19 to 22 students are capable of providing instruction without them.
