Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: Rep. Juan Ciscomani. left, meets with area students at the site of the new Pima High School under construction. Ciscomani secured a $1 million grant to help construct a new access road and traffic light to the new school from the highway. Also pictured is Pima Town Manager Vernon Batty, far right.
Secures funding to help construct new school road and traffic light
By Jon Johnson
PIMA – From its origins matriculating in chicken coops and jailhouses, education in Pima has come a long way and is about to make its next leap forward.
The Pima School District is building a $34 million new high school located just north of Highway 70 on the east side of town. Currently, the only current access is from E. Center Street, which connects to Highway 70 just west of the Dollar General store and to the east at 600 East. The new school will be just the second high school built in Pima’s 145-year history.
The town and school district have planned for a new section of 200 South created on the northeast side of U.S. Highway 70 for access. The town’s first traffic light will be installed at the newly formed intersection and entrance to the school.
To help facilitate the new road and traffic light, U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani has pushed through $1 million in funds through the House’s Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development package for the project. The package also approves $1.9 million for the town of Duncan to repave more than 4,000 feet on Main Street and High Street in Duncan – which have not been properly repaired in 45 years.
On Monday, Ciscomani was on hand for a small ceremony at the construction site attended by members of the Pima Town Council and Pima School Board, as well as community members, firefighters, and a group of youth leaders.
Pima Town Manager Vernon Batty introduced the speakers for the event and spoke briefly on rural Arizona and its worries about representation and not having a say.
“I can tell you right now that as long as we have this man (Ciscomani) in office we don’t have to worry about that in Pima,” Batty said. “He’s got a lot of constituents in Tucson he takes care of as well, but if you follow what he’s doing at all he is everywhere. He’s not just where the votes are, he’s where the needs are.”
Ciscomani extolled on the importance of an education and said he couldn’t think of any better way to invest in the present and future while honoring the past and history than by building a school.
“This is pretty historic,” Ciscomani said. “I don’t think I’m going to be around for the next school that gets built if it takes that long to build another one.”
Ciscomani said he works hard to bring the federal dollars that come from the citizens back to Arizona for our residents and students benefit.
“There’s enough wasteful spending in Washington,” Ciscomani said.
“You need government to show results for you. You need the federal government to be working on your behalf. And as long as I am here, I’m going to continue to make sure that happens as these resources keep coming back.”
The event featured a history of Pima’s schools by Darwin Weech who advised that after matriculating here and there (including the jailhouse and a chicken coop) the first two-story, red-brick schoolhouse was built in 1905 and held four classrooms.
In 1922, the elementary school (now since demolished) was constructed. Then in 1938, Pima built its first high school and has been in the same building ever since.
With its new facility, Pima will have open registration and, according to Pima Superintendent Sean Rickert, there is currently a waitlist of students.
“Pima’s growing, and we need a new high school,” Rickert said. “That high school that was built in 1938 with a WPA project is woefully outdated. Nobody expects a high school to last more than 60 to 70 years.”
The new school site is set on 44 acres just off Highway 70 with the academic buildings and gymnasium located toward the highway and the athletic fields and other sports amenities further to the north. Rickert added that the school is keeping 5 acres of agriculture fields because “we still value teaching kids in Pima how to grow things.”
The campus is built to handle 500 students in classroom space and Pima is currently sitting at about 350 students. Rickert advised that the number would rise when the new high school is opened.
“We have waiting lists in every grade level,” he said. “This place is just going to be chock full of kids.”
The new high school facility will be a 67,000-square-foot campus. The ballfields, including baseball, softball, football, and two practice fields, will be located on the northern end of the property off East Center Street, while the gymnasium will be on the southern end near the highway. The proposed football stadium features 2,890 “Home” seats and 1,496 “Visitor” seats, with the home stands facing east and the visitor seats facing west.
The new high school is currently under construction with a tentative completion date in June, and an opening to all students for the Fall 2025 school year. However, due to the funding cycles, it is not believed the new connecting street and stoplight will be completed in time for the school’s opening.
The town and Ciscomani had originally sought $2.5 million for the new connecting road and stoplight, but the reward was reduced to $1 million. The town is reaching out to other funding sources, including an Arizona Department of Public Safety passes to schools grant, which should cover the rest of the amount to finish the new connecting road and traffic light.
