$20M set to build new Great Hearts charter

Agency approves tax-free bonds for Maryvale site

Great Hearts Academies, a charter-school network with roughly two dozen sites in Arizona and Texas, plans to open a new campus in Maryvale in 2018.

The school, which will be located near 47th Avenue and Camelback Road, will grow to serve children in grades 3-12 who graduate from Maryvale Preparatory Academy, a partner school with more than 500 children in lower grades and a wait list of roughly 400 students.

The new school will be built using as much as $20 million in tax-free bonds recently approved by Maricopa County’s Industrial Development Authority and donor contributions. Great Hearts also hopes to take advantage of a financing program created by Gov. Doug Ducey that helps expand high-performing schools with wait lists.

Another $20 million from the bond deal will fund improvements at Great Hearts’ Arcadia location, Veritas Preparatory Academy. The bond sale uses no taxpayer money, though the governor’s financing program does.

“The new campus is going to allow Maryvale Prep (which opened in 2012) to serve more than 1,000 students,” said Dan Scoggin, Great Hearts co-founder and chief advancement officer. “There’s a revival going on in Maryvale, and Great Hearts wants to be a part of it. And we have for five years, but we’re really going to the next level” with the new campus.

Phoenix Councilman Daniel Valenzuela apparently agrees.

“We’re a community on the rise. People are moving in. We need investment, and education is a part of that, but it’s more than brick and mortar,” he was quoted as saying in a Great Hearts fundraising brochure. “Great Hearts is investing in the people of Maryvale, and we all benefit.”

Scoggin noted that Maryvale Prep students perform highly despite many of them being “underserved.”

“Maryvale Prep will be a national model for Great Hearts of the classical, liberal arts curriculum” succeeding in a high-needs community, Scoggin said.

According to Great Hearts, the student body is 78 percent Hispanic, with 70 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Most would be the first in their families to attend college.

The school’s math and reading scores rank in the top 5 percent of Arizona schools that serve majority lowincome populations, the organization said.

Charter schools have been criticized for attracting less diverse student bodies. Funded by taxpayer money, they offer classes tuitionfree, but don’t always provide transportation or other amenities.

The four traditional schools in the Cartwright and Alhambra districts closest to Maryvale Prep and its new campus location have higher populations of Hispanic students — 86 to 88 percent — and more students receiving free or reduced-price lunches — 86 to 94 percent.

“We realize that parents have many options for their children’s education,” Cartwright School District Superintendent Jacob Chavez said in a written statement, noting his district’s two A-rated schools and extras for students like iPads and coding class. “When a charter school opens in our area, it does not deter us from our mission. We want to create opportunities for students to be successful in each facet of their lives.”