West Valley district building its 8th elementary school

PHOENIX — A West Valley school district is set to break ground Friday on a new elementary school in Goodyear.

The future Loretta Zumbro Elementary School is expected to open in phases, the first of which will open in August of next year.

It is the eighth school in the Liberty Elementary School District (LESD), which serves Liberty, Rainbow Valley and parts of Buckeye and Goodyear. Officials named it after an employee who spent 38 years with the district.

“It has been a tremendous honor to serve the students and community of the Liberty Elementary School District for my entire career,” Zumbro said in a press release.

Where will the new elementary school in Goodyear be?

The 73,512-square-foot property is near Lower Buckeye Road, between Perryville and Citrus roads.

Upon the school’s completion, it will have the capacity to serve up to 900 students. It will teach preschool students through eighth graders.

Two companies have worked with LESD to establish the project scope and budget: CORE Construction and the DLR Group.

Michael Todd, LESD’s governing board president, said DLR’s design team has been especially helpful in crafting the school’s final design.

“We have worked with DLR Group on several projects over the past couple of years,” Todd said in the release. “When our bond failed, DLR Group worked extra hard with our staff to come up with a design that would keep us on budget and ensure we had a future-ready facility.”

The Arizona Department of Administration School Facilities Division is providing funding to support the project.

LESD will provide regular updates on the school’s construction process online. Officials will post enrollment information next year.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the new school was in Buckeye. The correct location is Goodyear.