The Vail School District is kicking off construction of a new elementary school near Corona de Tucson.
The district will celebrate the southeast-side school’s construction in a groundbreaking ceremony at the site on the south end of Sycamore Leaf Road on Wednesday, Dec. 2.
Copper Ridge Elementary School is set to open for the 2016-17 school year.
Vail schools decided to build the school to alleviate overcrowding at Sycamore Elementary, which serves nearly 1,000 students in Corona de Tucson, said Calvin Baker, the district’s superintendent. Sycamore was designed for about 650 students.
About 300 students and some teachers and staff from Sycamore will be going to Copper Ridge when it opens, he said.
“It’s almost like one school is birthing another one,” Baker said. “We’re trying to leave some space for growth in both schools.”
Copper Ridge is being built entirely with on local school bond funding, Baker said. Vail district voters approved $29 million in bonds last year, $10.5 million of which will to be used to build the school.
“Without the support of our local voters, we simply wouldn’t be unable to do this,” he said. “The conditions at Sycamore Elementary School, which already is operating way over capacity, would have become intolerable.”
A planning committee comprising parents, teachers and Corona de Tucson community members was formed to decide the design and direction of Copper Ridge, the superintendent said.
Erica Irby, assistant principal at Sycamore, was chosen to lead Copper Ridge.
Irby started her teaching career in Phoenix, where she taught first and third grades for three years. She came to Vail in 2008 and was a third-grade and student achievement teacher before becoming an assistant principal.
Her vision for the new school is to invest in a sense of community, create a positive and safe environment for the students and maintain high academic achievement, she said.
The transition from Sycamore to Copper Ridge will be smooth, she said, as she already is part of the Corona de Tucson community.
“The families and community have been wonderful to work with for the last four years,” she said.
