John S. McCain III Elementary Officially Opens its Doors!

On Tuesday, July 27th, John S. McCain III Elementary officially opened its doors! Future students, teachers and staff were able to watch the ribbon-cutting, hear from Cindy McCain herself, District members, their Principal, and tour their new campus!

John S. McCain III Elementary School is Buckeye Elementary School District’s 9th school. The new school aspires to break the traditional school design formula and become a model for schools of the future. John S. McCain III Elementary is designed to have three learning communities based on age groups K-2, 3-5 and 6-8. The conceptual design theme of the project, Taking Flight, is derived from the life of its namesake, the late Senator, John McCain, who served as a jet fighter pilot on an aircraft carrier during his time in the Navy and conceptualizes the school as a springboard for its students to take flight in both their lives and their education, just as an aircraft carrier facilitates the flight of military aircraft. 

“We are determined to have Senator McCain represented by more than his name on the front of the building. This will be a school that reverberates with his presence. His energy. His curiosity. His honor. Not as some sort of memoriam, rather, as a place where students aspire to exemplify the traits so identified with Senator McCain. A place where students could aspire to be their best selves, just like the Senator. A place that provides students a way to achieve lofty goals for themselves, their community, their state, and their country.” says Dr. Kristi Wilson, the Superintendent of Buckeye Elementary School District. 

John S. McCain III Elementary strives to achieve this goal by integrating character development programs into the core of its school philosophy and will feature a cutting-edge C-STEM (Coding, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) based curriculum that will also uniquely balance critical thinking, humanities through history, and social skills. The world-class education provided here is housed in a high-performance learner-centric facility that enables the staff in their mission to cultivate and nurture the skills their students needs to prepare them for their futures. John S. McCain III Elementary features over 20 classrooms, referred to as Learning Centers, in addition to a gymnasium, a kitchen and food court, flex spaces and a band/music room. These spaces are anchored by multiple learning and reading commons spaces, outdoor play areas, administrative space and are centered around a sky bridge that ties together the flight theme of the campus. 

For more information on the design + construction of this exciting new campus, check out our Construction Communication site below.