Wrightson Ridge K-8, the newest addition to the Sahuarita Unified School District, officially opened to students for the second half of the 2018/2019 school year on Monday, January 7th, 2019. Roughly 450 K-5 aged students arrived to a special welcome, which included the Sahuarita High School marching band, flag team, cheer squad and dance team.
The school, which was made possible thanks to the successful passing of a $20 million bond back in November of 2016 by local voters, is designed to be a K-8 school at full capacity. About 200 sixth through eighth graders will begin attending the new school later in the fall, to help make the transition as smooth as possible.
The new 80,000-square-foot school is located southwest of Copper View Elementary school in the Sahuarita Town Center, on land donated by the Rancho Sahuarita Company.
The new school is designed by Swaim Associates Architects, which is the same firm that designed Copper View Elementary. The full campus includes six buildings, along with soccer, baseball, and softball fields and tennis courts. The new school also has a special bus loop road, which helps ensure that buses and parents’ cars will be kept separate and that safety remains a top priority. Shelly Lizardi is the principal of the new school, whose mascot is the “Roadrunners”.