Apache Junction school district may start liberal-arts academy at former elementary site

By Richard Dyer
Mail | X: @RHDyer

Superstition Mountain Elementary School, which has been closed since 2015, may soon be bustling with students again as a liberal-arts academy to attract those who may instead go to a charter school in south Apache Junction.

Superintendent Robert Pappalardo proposed the Apache Junction Unified School District study reopening the school and start looking for a principal.

“You need an expert to do this well. If you’re going to venture down this road, you need someone who is vested in that and has done that,” he said during the June 11 meeting of the AJUSD Governing Board.

“What I’m proposing is that as we look at 2025-26 to open SMES as a classical academy, a liberal arts school, OK, that teaches the classics; it teaches languages; it does music, science, mathematics — all of that. So that you go head-to-head with the school that you know that’s going to open in winter of ‘26 down south. If you want to attract those students, you have to have something to attract them with,” Pappalardo said.

Great Hearts Academies, a charter school, is to open at Blossom Rock in south Apache Junction in fall 2026.

SMES closed as part of an effort by AJUSD to make up a $2.7 million budget shortfall for the 2015-16 school year, according to the archives of the Apache Junction Independent.

The school, northwest of the corner of Southern Avenue and Ironwood Drive in Apache Junction, had been leased to a church with a theater and more recently turned into the home for the district’s The Learning Center, which offers an early intervention developmental preschool program, a Kickstart to Kindergarten program, before-school care and a day care program.

AJUSD has three elementary schools, a junior high school and a high school. The district is from Meridian Road on the west to the town of Queen Valley on the east and from the Goldfield Mountains to the north, south into the San Tan Corridor. Communities served include Apache Junction, Gold Canyon, Peralta Trail, Queen Valley and unincorporated Pinal County land in-between.

AJUSD is now a parents’-choice district, where a student can attend any of the three elementary schools. A Spanish dual-language immersion program at Four Peaks Elementary and a GenTech STEM program at Peralta Trail Elementary are both starting in the 2024-25 school year, according to the district’s website.

Board discussion

Pappalardo’s comments were during a portion of the June 11 meeting set aside for information and discussion items and was on the agenda as “Proposed program at SMES - Classical Academy.” No formal decision was made by the board, but board members appeared to agree with reopening SMES.

“So Peralta Trail (Elementary) will be STEM, SMES will be classical arts and humanities, Four Peaks (Elementary) dual-language, what are our plans for Desert Vista (Elementary),” Board member Bobby Bauders asked.

“Undetermined at this point,” Pappalardo said. “Undetermined only because we have a brand new principal there who needs to see the lay of the land and determine where they’re going to be and what that’s going to be.”

Some sort of specialty will be at Desert Vista, he said later.

Bauders said The Learning Center should remain at the SMES campus.

“How can we tie TLC into all that?” he asked.

“That will be a further discussion with the principal who is selected or a part of the interview process of how that would work and what that would look like,” Pappalardo said.

Board member Cami Garcia asked when the decision would be made about Desert Vista Elementary.

“If I’m a parent and I’m making a decision where I want to go, when do you think we might have a plan for that school?” she asked.

“What I would plan for now is a contemporary K-5 school for this year at this point,” Pappalardo said.

Garcia asked if the district has begun telling parents they can choose which school their children attend. Pappalardo said that will occur soon.

Board Vice President Gil Cancio asked if the district can handle parent-choice flexibility with bus transportation and Pappalardo said the routing has already been decided.

Cancio also asked about the suitability of SMES to reopen as a school and asked if the district could seek state grants.

“That’s the plan,” Pappalardo said.

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.