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2 Plans for 6th High School: District Officials Discuss New Facility for North Scottsdale Area

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 January 2006, 15:01 CST

By Andrea Falkenhagen, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Jan. 25--Scottsdale Unified School District officials unveiled two plans on Tuesday night that would allow students in north Scottsdale to have a high school of their own.

District officials plan to ask voters to approve a bond initiative to build a sixth high school in November 2007.

The new school, which would start as a small, specialized program focusing on technology, science, math or the arts, would be located either in, or adjacent to, Copper Ridge Elementary School, 10101 E. Thompson Peak Pkwy.

The school would start ninth-graders in the 2008-09 school year, and would grow by one grade each year, eventually enrolling more than 1,000 students.

The fight for a sixth high school in north Scottsdale heated up in 2001, when parents voiced concerns over their children having to drive on Loop 101 to attend Saguaro or Chaparral high schools.

Currently no district high school exists north of Desert Mountain High School, 12575 E. Via Linda.

The district, however, failed to persuade voters to approve the $146 million bond sale for the new school in the 2001 elections.

At that time, even some district officials spoke out saying there would never be sufficient funding to operate the high school, and that boundary changes were a better solution.

But this time, things are different, insisted district Superintendent John Baracy.

"We have involved the community a lot in the process," he said. "Now, we have better data as far as where the growth is, and it lets you see a pattern."

The pattern, he said, includes steady growth of families north of Shea Boulevard. More data, including enrollment projections for the Scottsdale high schools, will be presented at March's governing board meeting, he said.

Baracy is also banking on the development of the specialized "school-within-aschool" aspect to attract students from within "and outside of" the district.

The "magnet" school would focus on one or two career areas, such as mathematics and science, engineering and technology or humanities and the arts.

Board member Christine Schild said the specialized schools might be the key to making the proposal viable.

In the past, Schild has criticized plans for a sixth high school, saying it would pull students away from southern schools. But she believes the new plan is a "reasonable approach."

"The slow growth will allow us to do planning," she said. "By slowly moving forward one year at a time, it allows us to develop specialized academies at all the high schools."

Still, some parents at Tuesday's meeting were skeptical that voters, who will already be asked to approve an $89 million technology bond issue in 2006, would be willing to approve another one the following year.

The district did not give cost estimates for either high school proposal at Tuesday's meeting.

The district is asking the community for input regarding which specialty programs are most popular.

Detailed information and a survey will be available on the district Web site at

www.susd.org.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Tribune

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