Amphitheater is building a new STEM elementary school

The Amphitheater School District will open a new elementary school focused on science, technology, engineering and math for the 2017-18 school year.

The school will be located in Oro Valley in the Rancho Vistoso community. It will serve Kindergarten through fifth grade.

“It’s a very exciting opportunity,” said Monica Nelson, the district’s associate superintendent for school operations.

The new school, which would serve about 500 students, would be built using bond funds approved by district voters in 2007, she said. The town of Oro Valley is reviewing the schools’ plans, and the district hopes to begin construction around May.

The yet-unnamed school would “infuse critical thinking skills and higher-order skills” into the curriculum, Nelson said. But that does not mean the school would lack arts programming.

“The discussion has focused so much on providing additional opportunities for our children to better prepare them for opportunities later on in their lives as they grow up,” she said. “This kind of foundational support is critical to their next step.”

Much of what makes this school a STEM school involves the campus itself and how space is utilized, said James Burns, executive manager of operational support for Amphitheater.

“A lot of it is built right into the construction,” he said.

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Each of the buildings has space that allows for hands-on learning, such as a learning lab, he said. The learning labs have sinks and faucets, large table spaces and storage areas where students can put away their projects.

The campus would also contain devices, including a water-harvesting system with a volume display, that would allow students to think critically about math and science concepts.

Another key feature of the school’s design is that some of the learning areas are built into the Sonoran Desert, where students can “actually walk in and study Arizona’s natural habitat,” he said.

“The ultimate goal is to make the actual functions of the building part of the learning that the students get to partake in,” Burns said.

Amphitheater is in the process of searching for the new school’s president, according to Nelson. The job is being advertised nationally.

“This is not the place for someone to come in and learn to be a principal,” she said. The district wants someone who already has a successful career in administration and is “well-prepared for the future.”

The new principal, when one is selected, would oversee the construction and development of the new school, she said.