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Courtesy of Arizona Game & Fish Department

Fourth-grade Canyon Springs teacher Marcie Longstaff (above) shares a laugh with her class,many of whom have recently moved into the Deer Valley school district.
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Canyon Springs construction brings challenges to students and staff

by Kathleen Stinson

ANTHEM – Nine‑year‑old Macy Storms started school at Canyon Springs School just as the construction of classrooms was completed.

Canyon Springs School, 42901 N. 45th Ave., the newest Anthem school in the district which serves kindergarten through seventh grade, is still under construction. Chain link fences partition the office and multi‑purpose buildings, still under construction, from the finished classrooms. Trucks still pull up to deliver furniture for the school and plants for landscaping.

Referring to his first day of school, Macy said, “I was thinking that the school would already be built, but it’s not.”

Despite the construction, the school has its advantages, say students and staff.

“Everybody’s new–so if you’re a new student, you don’t feel left out,” Macy said.

Canyon Springs fourth‑grade teacher, Annie Church, just moved to Arizona from Chicago.

“The neatest thing is more than half the students moved here from different states,” Church said. “Phoenix is a big melting pot for everyone,” she said, adding she has students from Canada, Italy, England and Poland.

The school is already outgrowing its projected fall enrollment numbers, Principal Julie Ruskey said. Deer Valley Unified School District estimated 425 students would start this fall. To date, 554 have enrolled. The building is designed to hold 1,000 students. Classes average in size from 22 to 32 students, with the larger classes in the upper grades. Twenty‑two classrooms are in use at this time.

Another Canyon Springs fourth‑ grade teacher, Marcie Longstaff, said only eight of her 24 students comes from Phoenix.

Ruskey and her new staff acknowledge they have some challenges working in their temporary office and in preparing for the move to the new office. Boxes of paper stand stacked on the floor next to tables being used for desks. But, like the students, the staff enjoys being part of a new team.

“We are all starting together–all building the school (culture) together. And there is an opportunity for everyone to be involved in the process,” Ruskey said.

Longstaff said her students are taking the construction around them better than she is.

“The students are so adaptable. They don’t even blink that there are no trees,” she said, adding the students are mostly concerned with getting to know each other and their new surroundings.

Longstaff said she loves the diversity of her students. The class wrote pen pal letters to another school. Her student from Florida talked about Disney World like everyone knows all about it, she said.

All construction, including the multi‑purpose room, is due to be completed in October.

Reach the reporter at kathleen@thedesertadvocate.com.

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