Flagstaff Junior Academy (FJA) is nearing discovery of a new location for the middle school it plans to move to in time for the 2024-2025 school year.
The school’s offer for a vacant property was received on the morning of Friday, June 30. FJA is currently working with architects, engineers and the city to build a modular middle school campus on the site.
The FJA owns the location of the elementary school, but has leased the former Flagstaff Middle School as the Middle School (also known as the Bonito Campus) for over a decade. FJA’s middle school runs from his 5th through 8th grades, with a total of about 200 students in the latest grade.
The school has been looking for a new location since moving to the old Flagstaff Middle School in the 2012-2013 school year, and has stepped up its search this winter.
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In February, the Flagstaff Unified School District (FUSD) amended its lease with the FJA because it is using the site of the middle school building as a construction site for a new Marshall Elementary School. FJA middle school students will continue to attend school in her FMS building next school year, but this will be their last school on the Bonito campus.
FJA assistant director Kristin Patterson said, “I’m thrilled to finally have a home.” “It’s been really great to have that space through FUSD, and it’s been a great facility for us for many years, but I think we’re ready to have a place where we can really establish our own community. I hope that is a good fit for us.” The aesthetics of our school and the style of our school were even better than the rest of the space. ”
“It’s been a good home for us,” said FJA Executive Director Carissa Morrison of the FMS building. “…that was a good deal. We knew it was going to end, so now we see it as an opportunity to secure our property and have our own place, our own home that truly belongs to us.” .”
Morrison said the search was ongoing. The FJA put out an offer for the vacant lot on the Thursday of the week preceding the June 30th acceptance.
Because the facility is an open space, FJA will work with the Charter School Development Corporation to set up modular units similar to how the campus of the Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy is currently laid out. And FJA will be on a lease-to-own situation instead of the current annual lease of the building, allowing the middle school to be set up more permanently.
The project architect will be APMI Architecture, a Phoenix-based company. APMI also conducted needs assessments during the winter that included focus groups with FJA and school staff to determine priorities for new schools.
Priorities for the new site were access to outdoor spaces and trails, “seamless transitions” between indoor and outdoor spaces, and “intentional spaces for collaboration and mindfulness.”
Prime Minister Morrison said the main goal at this point is to have school sites ready for FJA middle school students by the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
Once a new site is found and the middle school is relocated, the FJA plans to increase enrollment from 45-50 students per grade to around 75.
“There’s a lot going on in middle school. This small environment and small classes are really great,” Morrison said. “…the students here all know each other, the teachers and staff all know them and have strong relationships with them. This is great.” would like to keep it, but intend to expand it just a little bit. ”
“In terms of the overall plan, we’re still pretty small, but we’re going to expand a little bit,” Morrison added.
Two for one?
Another option the school is considering is to take a phased approach, depending on various factors, but eventually to combine the elementary and middle schools into a single campus.
Morrison said the site the FJA is currently considering has enough space to do so, but the decision to merge the campuses “must be rational.”
“There is no rush, we are happy,” she said. “I love my elementary school campus, but our school does a lot across grades, so it might make sense to have a unified campus in the future. .”
She added, “It would be great if we were all on the same campus because there are so many opportunities for cross-age connections.” “One of the benefits would be more than that. there is.”
