MARC BUCKHOUT ~ MANAGING EDITOR~ 11/2/2011

Students have started at Cactus Shadows High School as freshman and graduated with their diplomas following their senior years in less
time than it has taken for the school to get a proposed expansion and overhaul of the campus under way.
None of that mattered on Friday though as principal Steve Bebee, accompanied by Cave Creek Unified School District Superintendent Debbie Burdick and other district employees celebrated the ground breaking on a project that will renovate the look of the district’s lone high school.
“The look of our campus will finally match that of the quality of education students are receiving inside our walls,” Bebee said.
The new 38,000 square foot building, will house a 200 seat lecture hall, a dance studio, an E-learning lab, which will have 50 computers for students to use, a faculty lounge, along with 10 additional classrooms.
Cave Creek Unified School board president David Schaeffer said to solve the overcrowding issue at the school, which is home to 1,775 students, the building was paramount.
“I might have taken a shovel and started digging myself if we didn’t come up with some sort of solution,” he said. “I can’t wait to be here next year and go through the doors of the new building.”
Along with adding the new building, which will allow the school to accommodate upwards of 2,100 students according to Bebee, another goal of the project was to reconfigure the campus to give it a main entrance point.
A circular driveway located just to the west of the new building will be the center point for the campus’ main entrance beginning with the 2012-2013 school year. The administration offices, currently located on the southwest part of the campus, as well as the bookstore, will be moved to the new main entrance.
With a timeline of late June or early July, Bebee said the projects will be received well.
“With the upgrades we’ve done in the time I’ve been here you just see the amazing impact it has on students and parents that the district cared enough to improve the school,” he said.
The area currently in front of the new building, the gym and next to the practice field will become the faculty parking lot and also will be home to a student loading and service drive.
Burdick said the last five years, a period in which a second district high school was once considered before being scrapped, saw a lot of helping hands lead to Friday’s ceremony.
“This high school is the flagship of the community and of this district,” Burdick said. “We’ve been waiting a long time, but this is a great
day as a community member and as a parent of a former student in the district.”