History
In 1888, the Kyrene School District was founded at the request of nine families who wanted a school district for 17 children. The original boundary area was far smaller than currently; though the north boundary is unchanged, the Kyrene district confirmed its east boundary at Price Road and has since extended west from its 56th Street/Priest Drive boundary and south from Pecos Road to include much of the Gila River Indian Community. The district built a small school that was destroyed in a windstorm; until 1920, the Kyrene School site was at McClintock and Warner roads, two miles due east of the Furlong Center (a 1990 build). Many teachers who received their educational certificates from Arizona State University, originally called Tempe Normal School, taught in one of the two-schoolroom buildings. Mr. Earl D. Willams graduated from Arizona State University and began teaching Industrial Art at the Kyrene Junior High K-8 on Warner and Kyrene Rd. Mr. Williams built the first Industrial Art Shop-Class, the Library and the Administration Building. He also built a replica of the original school house for the Kyrene Bicentennial Parade. Mr. Earl Williams taught Industrial Art for thirty years at Kyrene. Kyrene approached the early 1970s with 600 students in the entire district, mostly Hispanic students from a small area named "Sende Vista", just south of Guadalupe, an area of South Phoenix called "Highland Terrace", and the Hightown neighborhood of Chandler. Five buses transported the districts to school. Resources in the '70s were concentrated on building classroom space for the district that would grow fourfold by 1980. C.I. Waggoner elementary was expanded, and the District completed Lomas and Norte elementary schools. (C.I. Waggoner Elementary School, est. 1969, is the oldest operating school facility in the district.) The 1980s brought another wave of new schools, built in mostly the same designs. Nine elementary and middle schools were built in the 1980s, and thirteen more followed by the late 1990s, bringing the District to a total of 25 schools. In August of 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the District launched it's 26th school (Kyrene's first completely on-line school) known as the Kyrene Digital Academy. The Kyrene Digital Academy is a K-8 school serving students from all over Arizona (not just within the Kyrene boundaries). Instruction is delivered one hundred percent online using live certified teachers.Middle schools
Centennial and Pueblo opened as junior high schools and were converted to full 6-8 middle schools in 1990. Kyrene MS opened as a junior high and was converted to a full 6-8 middle school in 1989.Elementary schools
*C. I. Waggoner Elementary School, est.1969C.I. Waggoner, the school's namesake, was a Depression-era district superintendent *Kyrene del Norte Elementary School, est. 1974 *Kyrene de las Lomas Elementary School, est. 1976 *Kyrene del Cielo Elementary School, est.1982 *Kyrene de los Ninos Elementary School, est. 1982 *Kyrene de la Paloma Elementary School, est. 1985 *Kyrene de la Colina Elementary School, est. 1987 *Kyrene Traditional Academy-Sureño Campus, est. 1987 *Kyrene de los Lagos Elementary School, est. 1988 *Kyrene de la Mariposa Elementary School, est. 1988 *Kyrene Monte Vista Elementary School, est.1989 *Kyrene de la Sierra Elementary School, est. 1992 *Kyrene de la Esperanza Elementary School, est. 1993 *Kyrene de la Mirada Elementary School, est. 1993The school was built in partnership withNotes
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