A 35,000-square-foot former urgent care center purchased by Marana Unified School District in 2020 will open this fall as a high school.
In 2020, Marana Unified School District purchased a 35,000-square-foot building that once housed an urgent care facility. When the pandemic hit, the future of the building at 8333 N. Silverbell Rd., north of North Cortaro Road, was put on hold. In the meantime, it housed the districtβs custodial supplies.
In a previous life, this building was an urgent care clinic. Marana Unified School District is transforming it into a high school that utilizes student-centered learning.
As the pandemic waned, Marana officials began brainstorming ways to utilize the building. Both of the districtβs comprehensive high schools are at or near capacity, said Dan Streeter, MUSD Superintendent.
Adding to the two high school campuses wouldnβt be effective, but there sat the urgent care building.
βWhen you start thinking about what the future of new school construction could look like ... weβre seeing a lot of vacant big box store buildings out there,β Streeter said. βThis was an opportunity to really completely redefine what teaching and learning could look like at the high school level.β
Streeterβs dissertation was on personalized learning spaces and had applied that to a middle school he was at before he became superintendent.
A banner advertises the future home of Marana Vista Academy, located at 8333 N. Silverbell Rd., north of North Cortaro Road. The school is slated to be operating for the 2025-2026 school year. The school will offer in-depth learning to serve a variety of learning styles, district officials say.
It zeroed in on βstudent centered approaches β tailoring educational experiences to individual students, abilities, interests, learning styles β incorporating more voice and choice.β
The school wouldnβt be like an online school, an honors school or an alternative school.
βA traditional model of education that is very standardized, very time block focused,β Streeter explained. βYou learn math for 55 minutes each day, and then you turn it off, and you move into English for 55 minutes, then you turn it off and you learn about science,β
βThis was an opportunity to really change some of those ideas.β
Laura Goligoski is the new high schoolβs Personalized Learning Coordinator β a little different from a principal, she explained.
βI have been tasked with just learning and building a school, researching and collaborating with people all over the country and taking a look at personalized learning programs.β
Goligoski described student-centered learning.
βItβs not just about the content that theyβre learning,β she said. Itβs also about methods and experiential learning.
βWhat we what we know is that, students, when they are more engaged and passionate about what theyβre learning, they tend to be more willing to stick with it, to learn and grow.β
The interior of what was once an urgent care clinic doesnβt look like a high school β yet. Marana Unified School District officials plan on their new high school finished by Fall 2025. The project cost $12 million in grant funding from the state.
Though the format is different, standards wonβt change, Streeter said. There is state testing, college admissions requirements and other elements that canβt do without those building blocks.
βThere are things I need to know. There are things I really want to know and I want to know more about,β Streeter said. βThis provides that opportunity.β
Streeter said he has seen the format work.
βSome of the qualitative measures were just much improved β¦ feelings about school, feelings about relationships with teachers, feelings about what their school experience.
βMore importantly, we saw quantitative data. We saw returns where the students in the personalized learning environment were outperforming students in a more traditional setting, on basic state assessments.β
Transforming the urgent care clinic into a cutting-edge high school costs money, of course. Streeter said $12 million is covered by a state grant. The total cost, including the property, is approximately $16.8 million, according to a MUSD spokesperson.
βWe anticipate not needing any of our capital dollars for furniture and exterior fencing,β he added.
Arizona had never approved school building grants for an existing facility before, Streeter said, so MUSD made their case β and received the $12 million.
Marana Vista Academy β new in so many ways β is slated to open in Fall 2025, educating anywhere from 100 to 200 students to start with.
The district hopes to eventually have 400 students, Streeter said.
Marana Vista has been β and will be β on a lot of peopleβs radars, Streeter said.
βItβs a project that people around the state are watching closely.β
