Middle school update calculates completion date as December

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but, with a little determination, schools can be built within a year’s time.

Both students and community members were in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony in May for Maricopa’s first middle school, built to service grades 6-8. Since then residents have watched as concrete block upon concrete block was laid to shape what will eventually be an 80,000 square foot campus on Honeycutt. It’s also been designed to have bus drop-offs and parking lots for staff/visitors as safer, separate areas.

At last week’s board meeting representatives from both Core Construction and the ADM Group reviewed the construction project with the school board and community, offering completion predictions.

ADM Group representative Ben Barcone points out areas of interest on the aerial view of the Middle School campus under construction.

Phase 1, consisting of Building A and B and, “optimistically,” Building C, is slated for completion by November 10. Building A contains administrative offices, two computer lab classrooms and the library. Building B will be home to 18 classrooms (including one special education classroom and a computer lab), and Building C consists of 20 classrooms, including one art room, a computer lab and two science labs.

Phase II, the final leg of construction, will be Building D where the multi-purpose room, cafeteria and six more classrooms (band, dance and other regular classrooms) reside. Current predictions show completion of the last structure by December 4.

“We hope to move students in on November 27, if all goes well, with teachers coming in November 13-22 to get the building ready, connect to the networks and set furniture up,” Principal Stephanie Sharp says. “But I cannot make the move until I can occupy A, B, and C. If we don’t make it by November 7, it makes more sense to wait until Winter Break.”

Until then middle school students are sharing the high school campus. But other concerns arose at the board meeting about facility use versus move-in dates.

“In some of the discussions we had with Dr. Flores, some of the problems are that even if we move people in early, then we have a problem with how we feed them because the cafeteria (in Building D) is not ready yet. So I’m not sure there’s really been a decision [on that],” ADM group representative Ben Barcone said.

Board President Jim Chaston requested discussions be held and options brought back to the board at the September 27 meeting in regard to the earliest feasible move-in date.