New elementary school ceremoniously breaks ground

The Maricopa Unified School District (MUSD) and D.L. Withers Construction hosted a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday for the new K-5 elementary school site located in The Villages at Rancho El Dorado.

Speakers included Superintendent Dr. John Flores, Governing Board Vice President Tracy Davis, Neil Pieratt from Gilleland Brubaker Architects and D.L. Withers Construction’s Dan Withers.

Construction began approximately one month ago, and the site is scheduled to open for students for the 2008-09 school year. The school site, located on the corner of Honeycutt Road and Donithan Way, is one of several such projects the district is undergoing. A new elementary school in Glennwilde and portions of a new middle school and a renovated high school are also scheduled for completion in August 2008.

The yet-to-be-named elementary school will have a capacity of 850 students and be a feeder to Tortosa Middle School. According to MUSD spokesman Tom Beckett, families of students being moved to the new school will be notified when the district’s Boundary Committee completes its assessment in January.

“Neighborhood schools are great for families,” Beckett said, “and we are confident that this new K-5 site will become vibrant part of the Villages community.”

Pictured in photo are (from left) Bill Griffith (City of Maricopa), Dan Withers (D.L. Withers Construction), Jake Romero (Maricopa Chamber of Commerce), Jill Donovan (D.L. Withers), Joe Breeze (D.L. Withers), Neil Peiratt (Gilleland Brubaker Architects) and Maricopa USD’s Tom Beckett, Dr. John Flores, John Sampson and Paul Kasparian.