New high school opening on Tucson's south side to prepare students for medical careers

Future health care workers will soon be training in a high-tech environment, with hands-on learning alongside doctors and other medical professionals.

Pima JTED Mel and Enid Zuckerman Center for Health and Medical Careers officially opens Oct. 4 on Tucson’s south side.

The 55,000-square-foot center will train high school students in over a dozen medical fields for certification.

The $24 million project was made possible with federal funding and the Zuckerman family.

Local developer Bourn Cos. built the facility, along with contractor BFL Construction, in a lease-to-own agreement.

Bourn owns The Bridges development, near Park Avenue and Interstate 10, where the medical campus is adjacent to the existing JTED school.

The agreement is that JTED will repay the cost of the building in a lease agreement until it’s paid off and fully owned by JTED.

"Our ultimate goal is to integrate culture, lifestyle and innovation to create great experiences and an even better life," said Don Bourn, president and CEO of Bourn Cos. "Working alongside pillars in the community like Pima JTED, we are building something that not only benefits students now but provides exciting opportunities for years to come."

JTED works in partnership with the local school districts and offers curriculum for students' electives, after their regular school day ends.

At the new health center, they will have a chance to work with realistic dummies that can throw up and have blood drawn or a vet center with a surgical theater where students can watch veterinarians perform procedures on real animals.

The decision to expand with a medical facility was a meeting with University of Arizona officials in 2018, said Kathy Prather, CEO and superintendent of JTED.

“They wanted to know why Tucson didn’t have a health high school and said JTED would be the perfect entity for that,” she said. “That planted the seed and as we floated this idea to the community, it became more and more popular.”

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Prather said students interact with the public at community health and wellness centers.

JTED boasts a graduation rate of 98%, and the majority of its graduates pursue a career based on their training at the school.

The average high school graduation rate across the country is 87%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The land that JTED owns at The Bridges, on the west side of Park Avenue, can support future growth.

“From the onset, we knew The Bridges would be a special place and we were committed to making it a hub of talent,” said Dillon Walker, a spokesman for Bourn Cos.

With hundreds of students, parents, teachers and associated faculty coming to the facility, other retailers at The Bridges also benefit.

“It’s a big win,” Walker said. “Sometimes our community doesn’t have a lot of wins.”

As a public school that does not charge tuition, JTED could turn to voters for bonds to finance its expansion plans, Prather said.

“Instead, we turned to the private sector for partnership opportunities,” she said.

Both Gary Brav, founder of BFL Construction, and developer Don Bourn quickly stepped up.

“We couldn’t have built this without them and, by not going out to bond, we are not raising taxes,” Prather said. “It’s transformative and the building now matches the path of our students.”