When Does Pima Jr High Go Back to School Pima Az

The Pima Unified School District has made the first of many steps needed to replace it's 83-year-old high school.

PUSD Superintendent Sean Rickert said the district has asked permission to lease 40 acres of land near Cluff Ranch Road and 1200 South from the Arizona State Trust Land Department.

State rules say that whenever possible, new school construction should take place on Arizona State Trust Land that's already been earmarked for the benefit of public schools, Rickert said. That being the case, the land would come at no additional cost to the taxpayers, he said.

If approved, the district would embark on a lengthy process that would ultimately result in students walking through the doors of a new school in August 2025.

Sean Rickert

"Pima's in a position where our high school is insufficient. I think that's beyond question, to be honest," Rickert said. "We're not saying 'We have a 20-year-old high school and we think it'd be better to have a new one.' We have an 83-year-old high school and it's time to give students in Pima a new place to go to school and get their education."

Rickert estimated the cost of the new school at $20-$25 million and the bulk of the cost will come from the Arizona State Facilities Board.

"We're doing everything we can to get money from the SFB, the legislature and Congress," Rickert said.

He's already met with representatives from Senator Kyrsten Sinema and Senator Mark Kelly's offices and Congressman Tom O'Halleran's office to talk to them about infrastructure funding.

However, the district will be going for a $4 million bond issue in November 2022, he said.

"The only way we're going to get a quality high school is to get some contribution from the taxpayers," Rickert said.

Over the last five years, PUSD's student enrollment has grown by 19% to 1,171 students with 335 of them being high school age, he said.

Normally, high schools of Pima's size are located on 40 acres, but right now all of Pima's students are located on 12 acres, the size of a K-6 school that has 500 students. Pima's high school students are spread out amongst six different buildings on the campus, including some that had been built for elementary school students originally.

"It just makes everything about this campus crowded and that's not conducive to a positive environment," Rickert said. "The purpose of a high school is to provide students with a great quality education that requires quality institutions, quality facilities and it's not making due."

It's not just the space that's the issue, either.

"The cost of heating and cooling on that building uses up resources that would otherwise be available for everything from high teacher salaries to additional programs," Rickert said. "We also have problems with wiring in that building. We used to have science labs in there where if more than one student plugged in a hot plate to do a science lab it would throw the breaker and someone would have to go down into the basement because the wiring was old and wasn't really able to support the needs."

The decision was made to move science classes into another building because a structural engineering firm determined that bringing the building up to code would've required a $3.2 million investment, Rickert said.

The district has also installed air conditioning units in some classrooms because the central air wasn't sufficient, he said.

"The windows that are in there aren't 1938 windows, either. They're 1990s windows, but they still aren't giving us the energy ratings that we could be getting," Rickert said.

If approved, the 40 acres would give the high school room to do everything it needs to do and room to grow in the future, he said. The old high school would probably be used for district offices, warehouse space and a training center.

"We want to be able to expand and provide students opportunities as new things come up," Rickert said. "That's the craziest thing about these times. Who knows what's going to be needed 10 years from now? We just need to make sure we have a facility that provides some flexibility."

As for the rooms left empty when the high school students leave, Rickert said he anticipates they'll be filled by 2027.

"At the rate Pima is growing, we're never going to be sitting around saying 'Gosh what are we going to do with all of this empty space?'" he said.

When Does Pima Jr High Go Back to School Pima Az

Source: https://www.eacourier.com/news/pusd-hopes-to-have-new-high-school-by-august-2025/article_9bf7d642-34ef-11ec-8c7c-bfa80e3691f3.html