Desert Sun school opens in temporary quarters
School district looking to engineers for flooding solutions
by Brian DiTullio

CCUSD – The July 31 rainstorm in North Scottsdale was big. So big, in fact, the deluge almost qualified as a 100‑year flood.

Inspector Ben Gregg, with the Maricopa County Flood Control District, said the qualification for a 100‑year flood is 2.75 inches of rain or more in a two‑hour period. The tally from the storm that flooded out Desert Sun Elementary School, located at 64th Street and Dynamite Boulevard, was 2.56 inches in two hours.

“It might have been a 90‑year flood,” Gregg said. “We did get quite a few complaints from that area.”

Kent Frison, Cave Creek Unified School District associate superintendent of operations and finance, said the district is going to bring in civil engineers in an effort to determine exactly why the water wasn’t redirected around the campus.

According to Dennis Roehler, director of facilities and construction, those engineers could give some recommendations for re‑engineering around nearby washes, as he thinks the water coming through the campus July 31 was just too much for existing flood controls.

“There was just so much water,  no one could’ve planned for that,” he said.

Roehler noted that the flood affected a total of 34 classrooms, a storage facility and the teachers lounge. The kindergarten building, gym, cafeteria and administration building were unaffected by the storm.

Desert Sun Elementary was built in 1999 and houses students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Interim Principal Trish Dolasinski said the first day of school Aug. 9 at the relocated campus, dubbed “Desert Sun North,” went very well. The temporary campus is located at the former Black Mountain Elementary School, located about one mile south of Carefree Highway at 60th Street and Dove Valley Road.

“Traffic flowed very smooth and we got a lot of support from the district,” she said.

Kinks worked out on the first day mainly included parking, as the school now shares the campus with Cactus Shadows High School.

Dolasinski said most Desert Sun students took the bus to school, but that there were some parents dropping their kids off. “It’s a real credit to their trust and commitment (to the district).”

An open house held Aug. 8 helped smooth the transition on the first day of school, according to the interim principal. Maps were posted and Dolasinski said she spent most of the morning meeting with teachers and students in the classrooms.

The flooding of Desert Sun Elementary caused an estimated $2 million in damages, almost all of which will be covered by the district’s insurance policy. District officials believe the damage can be repaired and the students moved back to the Desert Sun campus by the middle of October.