Starting early next year students at Sentinel Peak High School won't have to attend classes in timeworn buildings in an industrial part of town.
The Flowing Wells School District opened the doors to Sentinel Peak's brand-new campus at a Dec. 20 celebration.
Sentinel Peak junior Milad Rashidi is ready to start anew at the campus, which is in Marana at 4125 W. Regency Plaza St., near West Ina and North Thornydale roads.
"It's a better learning environment," Rashidi said. "It's a better space."
The former campus, which consisted of several aging buildings, was on West Garner Lane near North Romero Road in an industrial area.
Classes at Sentinel's new campus resume Jan. 3.
Students will return from winter break to find four new classrooms in a 7,675-square-foot building.
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One of the classrooms will operate as a Pima County JTED (Joint Technological Education District) health-related careers lab, and another classroom is a state-of-the-art computer lab.
The facility also features a library, kitchen, fitness room, basketball court, great room and administrative area.
Three circles built into the great room's ceiling represent support, the circle of completion and community.
"This school is the final piece in this (governing) board's promise to create a circle of community and provide the best environment for students to learn," Flowing Wells Superintendent Nicholas Clement said.
Rashidi joked that he was looking forward to a better lunch menu at the new school.
The building also benefits Sentinel's teachers and staff, Rashidi said.
"The equipment they have to help us has greatly improved. That's going to give us all the opportunity to better ourselves for our future," he said.
BFL Construction completed the building's design and construction in just six months. The builder also donated one acre to the district for Sentinel Peak's two-acre campus.
Bond money approved by Flowing Wells voters in 2008 to fund school renovation projects paid for the new facility, which cost $2.2 million.
The district had originally planned to renovate the former Sentinel Peak campus with bond money.
Clement said the community deserved an entirely new school.
Math teacher Wes Birch said the new building speaks to the district's dedication to all of its students.
About 60 students attend the alternative school, which opened in 1974 as a counseling-based school under the name Inscape.
"Hopefully it will help the kids achieve new levels in their lives and be able to move on better prepared," Birch said.
Students at Sentinel Peak receive online instruction, direct instruction and career readiness on their path to a high school diploma.
The students also have access to JTED certificate programs.
The school also is in the first year of a five-year grant that provides job placement services, workshops and college preparation to the students through the Success Initiative program.
Math and reading tutors are available daily to help the students, and other services also are offered through the grant.
English teacher Sally Hankin said that after eight years of teaching at Sentinel she stopped noticing the wear and tear of the old facility, but welcomes the influence the new facility will have on her students.
"I anticipate a complete about-face in the kids' attitudes," she said.
Contact reporter Andrea Rivera at arivera@azstarnet.com or 807-8430.
