Desert Sunrise High School has been reaching for the sky on the eastern edge of the City of Maricopa and officially joins the community July 21.
The new $41 million campus at 16200 N. Murphy Road will offer students access to career academies with subjects ranging from engineering to education along with top-tier instruction in more traditional curriculum. The more than 600 freshmen and sophomores being welcomed to the campus will have numerous specialties to choose from as they explore career fields.
All will create opportunities for dual enrollment and industry credentials.
Principal Marlene Armstrong calls the instructional model “daring and diverse.” A full slate of electives also will be available, including art, drama, band, choir, physical education and Spanish.
She says the classroom building is set up to create smaller learning communities within the student body to personalize the experience and foster collaboration between students as they continue through the grade levels.
Over the 2023 and 2024 school years, 11th and 12th grades will be added. It is Maricopa Unified School District’s second high school.
Desert Sunrise’s Golden Hawks will land on a campus with a two-story classroom building plus a cafeteria, gymnasium and music building, administration center, a football field and a track complex. The May 24 ribbon-cutting on the first phase was highlighted by a surprise groundbreaking for Phase 2, projected by general contractor CHASSE Building Group architecture firm Orcutt|Winslow for completion in July 2023.
This will include additional sports facilities and a Student Commons Building with media center, college and career counseling area and a performance stage. A third phase bringing more educational and athletic facilities is planned and will be scheduled as funding becomes available.
Desert Sunrise will cover 165,000 square feet on 80 acres at full buildout and have a capacity of 1,300 students.
Its attendance area includes most of the area north of Casa Grande-Maricopa Highway and east of State Route 347, with Desert Wind Middle School and Saddleback, Pima Butte, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz elementary schools as feeder campuses.
Career academies available at Desert Sunrise High School include:
STEM Academy
- Engineering
- Software and app design
- Air transportation
- Sports medicine
STEM Academy electives
- eSports
- Forensics
- Robotics
Leadership Academy
- Business management
- Student government
- Digital communications
- Ed professions
- Agriscience
- Sports broadcasting/journalism
Leadership Academy electives
- Academic Decathlon
- Model UN
- Speech, debate — Law, public safety
