Due to a fiercely growing student population in CUSD, district officials have decided to resolve this issue by spending $25 million for two brand new schools.

The decision to build a brand new elementary school was made just a few weeks prior when the district purchased 14.5 acres of land. The location of this proposed campus (which will accommodate 1,000 students) is on Ocotillo Road and 148th street, a short four-minute drive from Weinberg Elementary.

Weinberg is a traditional public school; however, once the doors to the new school open, the district plans on morphing the Weinberg facility into an academy for gifted students. As the land purchase is already finalized, the contractors are scheduled to break ground by November. This gives them less than a year to complete the project as the district aims to open the new school by July of 2020; next school year.

As for the new high school, the number of teenagers within CUSD boundaries has flourished causing the current high school population to reach roaring heights. ACP (823), Basha (2273), Casteel (2062), Chandler (3364), Hamilton (4036), PHS (651). However, with all the new construction in Gilbert, PHS has been taking the brunt of the rising population.

Math teacher, Ryan Keating said, “Another high school would be helpful as it’ll pull some of our current numbers and finally level out extreme student percentages.”

For years on end, PHS has been growing at an unprecedented rate causing both a classroom and teacher shortage. Therefore, Keating is not the only facility member on campus hoping for a new high school. Even the principal Dan Serrano believes this can be a positive change.

“Forty-percent of our student population is out-of-boundaries, so it’s pretty even,” Serrano said. 

A good percentage of students within boundaries would be relocated to this potential new high school, he explained.

Unfortunately, there has been a public outcry in the advocated land about the thought of a new high school. Traffic jams, disruptive nights, and noisy mornings are just some of the many complaints residents in the area have toward the idea of a high school.

A local resident near the advocated area, Sarah Myers, stated, “I understand it’s a much needed school, but bringing in an entire high school is much more complicated… the traffic and noise alone will prove to be a large issue.”

Despite all of this, CUSD has an upstanding goal of bringing in 500 students every year, meaning whether or not the second campus turns out to be a traditional high school, CUSD is always growing and will be needing both new campuses to feed its large percentage.