Phoenix Union High School District

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Phoenix Union High School District is a school district based in Phoenix, Arizona, United States.

Phoenix Union HSD covers most of Phoenix, and small portions of Scottsdale, and Glendale. Phoenix Union HSD only operates high schools.

Contents

[edit] Schools

[edit] Zoned schools

[edit] Magnet schools

[edit] Feeder elementary school districts

[edit] Desegregation issues

Like the majority of urban high school districts across the United States, Phoenix Union HSD has had its share of issues. In 1982, when Phoenix Union High School and East High School closed, boundaries were redrawn for most district high schools to try to achieve racial balance. For example, the school boundaries for schools such as Central High School, North High School, and Camelback High School were redistricted to encompass the affluent, predominantly White neighborhoods of Phoenix located north of Camelback Road and east of Seventh Avenue as well as low-income, predominantly Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods that encompass much of the inner city of Phoenix. Nevertheless, this did not improve the racial balance at all but resulted in white flight out of the Phoenix Union High School District areas. This white flight included traditional "moving out" of inner-ring suburbs such as Maryvale and less-traditional flight out of public schools.

One of the most notable examples of this is the neighborhood of Phoenix known as "Old Central". Located south of Northern Avenue, north of Camelback Road, west of Seventh Street, and east of Seventh Avenue, this neighborhood to this day is one of the most desirable neighborhoods of Phoenix. While it is served by Central High School and North High School, very few families choose to send their students to these schools, due to concerns regarding safety and gang violence. Instead, the vast majority of school-age children in this area attend one of the two Catholic college-preparatory high schools in the area: Brophy College Preparatory for boys and Xavier College Preparatory for girls. Despite the fact that these families not only pay tuition for these schools but taxes to support the Phoenix Union High School District, most families in this neighborhood choose to send their children to private school. Magnet schools have been introduced to try to combat this situation, but in many cases demographic changes have been so significant that they fail to racially balance schools.

Today, the Phoenix Union High School District is 76% Hispanic, 10% African-American, 9% White, 4% Native American, and 1% Asian.

[edit] External links