JTED could open center at Sunnyside alternative high school

Part of the property at Sunnyside Unified School District’s alternative high school could soon be home to a new career and technical education campus. If approved by the Governing Board, construction would begin in June and conclude in October.

The district is partnering with the Pima County Joint Technical Education District to build a 7,000-square-feet central campus building at the S.T.A.R. Academic Center, 5093 S. Liberty Ave.

JTED wants to lease the property from Sunnyside to establish a central campus and offer construction and heavy-equipment-operations programs to all JTED students, not just Sunnyside students.

Both programs would begin in August and be temporarily housed in S.T.A.R. Academic Center’s existing buildings until the new one opens.

Construction and heavy-equipment-operations programs are in high demand from the industry, said Kathy Prather, Sunnyside’s career and technical education director.

“These programs will offer career opportunities and skill development in areas where there is a shortage of skilled workforce,” she said. Sunnyside has not had a construction program in about 15 years and the heavy-equipment-operations program is being offered by JTED for the first time in August.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

JTED has not had a central campus on Tucson’s southwest side, Prather said. The new location at S.T.A.R. is ideal because of its proximity to Interstate 10 and the Roy Laos Transit Center, which would help students from elsewhere in the Tucson area to enroll in classes there.

The new campus, which would cost about $750,000, would be an industrial building with two classroom areas, two bathrooms and a large open area for equipment, including saws, tools and computer-guided machinery, according to Alan Storm, the JTED superintendent.

JTED would also lease equipment, including small tractors, for the heavy-equipment-operations program, which Storm said the district has been working for over two years to implement. The new program was born from a partnership between JTED and the Sahuarita Unified School District.

Storm said he hopes the new campus will make the programs offered there more accessible to students in that area.

“It opens up a wide range of possibilities to our students from our satellite high school programs,” he said.