A growing charter school based in Phoenix has announced plans to build a new facility in the growing city of Buckeye.
Great Hearts Academies currently operates just under two dozen schools in metropolitan Phoenix.
The new school in Buckeye, to be called the Roosevelt Preparatory Academy, is seen as a response to waiting list in a city that has seen its population increase from 6,500 people in the year 2000 to nearly 80,000 today.
The school is being named in honor of Quentin Roosevelt, the son of President Theodore Roosevelt, who died at the age of 20 in 1918 on a combat mission in World War I.
The new facility is expected to cost around $22.3 million with construction launching sometime this summer. It will go up on around 25 acres at the intersection of Jackrabbit Trial and Van Buren Street.
As planned, the school will serve up to 800 students from kindergarten to 8th grade.
Great Hearts officials have said that they would like to have that school completed in time for the fall 2022 semester.
Founded in 2007, Great Hearts currently serves more than 22,000 students, with course offerings emphasizing literature, language studies, and history.
By Garry Boulard