PHOENIX — The former Martin Luther King Jr Elementary School, home of the Monarchs, has undergone another metamorphosis.
The school is one of five closed by the district at the end of the 2024-2025 school year and has been repurposed into a community hub for more than 500 families with children from infants up to 5 years old.
“Childcare and child development, families learning how to support their children,” Superintendent Dr. Dani Portillo said. “The commitments that we made to the community is that these campuses would be very carefully transformed into assets for our community. So we're trying to build value to the community.”
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The facility houses seven different tenants, including daycares, a Montessori school, an after school program and early learning center. A WIC office and food pantry are on the way.
"Making this a community hub again has been awesome,” Dr. Patty Merk with the University of Arizona Roosevelt Early Childhood Family Resource Center said.
The university’s resource center oversees the whole facility, while also putting on classes and events for families throughout the week.
"We're really able to bring people together, help all the different systems work out, and show people, look, we can do this,” Dr. Merk said.
As for the other schools closed by the district, Maxine O. Bush Elementary is reopening as Maxine O. Bush Future Ready Academy serving preschool through second grade students and focusing on STEAM education.
The district wrapped up community input sessions on the final three facilities, CJ Jorgenson Academy, John R. Davis Elementary and VH Lassen Academy.
"It was really important for us to listen to community and be very clear as to what they would accept in their neighborhoods and what they would reject from their neighborhoods,” Dr. Portillo said. "Maybe a space that would support our aging population, much like this one focuses on our younger population. Maybe a space that will be focused on work skills development."
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