New Elementary With Ties To ASU Opens
First- and second-graders practiced pronunciation. Third- and fourth-graders learned basic Spanish while learning their classmates' names. Fifth- and sixth-graders discovered their teachers' backgrounds.
Monday was the first day of school for the 230 kindergarten to sixth-graders at Polytechnic Elementary School in Mesa. The nonprofit charter school, managed by University Public Schools Inc., is affiliated with Arizona State University. It's been in the planning stages since ASU President Michael Crow envisioned it in 2002.
The school promises innovative, team teaching, individualized learning for every student and new teaching styles, implemented with the help of mentor teachers and ASU graduate students, said Principal Donna Bullock.
The Campus of the Future
Michael Crow is overseeing one of the most radical redesigns in higher learning since the modern research university took shape in 19th-century Germany. Since taking over as president of Arizona State University in 2002, he's not only doubled the budget to more than $2 billion a year, hired dozens of world-class researchers and rapidly raised the academic profile of what used to be a mediocre school; he's also transforming the way Phoenix-based ASU sees itself—and helping reinvent the university for the global age.
ASU Making Plans to Refurbish Campus Buildings
Many of Arizona State University's aging buildings will soon receive a long-overdue fix-up.
The Legislature in June approved $1 billion for building renewal and new construction at the state's three public universities, though nearly half will be spent on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus. The Arizona Board of Regents is giving roughly $200 million to ASU.
ASU's School of Construction will get up to $32 million for a new building to house its growing enrollment.
The construction school's new home will meet the highest "green" building standards, James Ernzen, director of the school, has said. Construction professors will use the building to show students first-hand what earth-friendly structures look like and how they work.
University officials are still figuring out precisely which structures on the main campus in Tempe they want to spend their remaining $170 million in maintenance cash.
