Celebrating Our Community Roots:
It’s Time for a New Name
Fourteen years ago, we set up our school on our current campus. We had two weeks to move in and unpack before Winter Break ended. We started the new semester in unfamiliar soil, looking out at the community around us and wondering how we could keep our seedling safe and give our school a chance to grow.
Luckily, we haven’t had to do it alone. Like a nurse plant, our neighborhood and the broader Tucson community has given us shelter and support, and we’ve put down strong roots in the soil of our little lot at the corner of Arcadia Avenue and Fairmount Street. Despite being an under-resourced public charter school, like the saguaro, we’ve learned how to find the water we need through the power of community. Pinecrest Park has become a spot where our children play and learn, our neighborhood and broader Tucson community helps us raise funds for teacher training through our annual Weihnachtsmarkt festival and other fundraisers, and Tucson’s public transportation system allows us to transport our students on field trips cost-free.
As our roots have grown, we’ve been able to give back to our neighborhood as well: we’ve joined the Pinecrest Neighborhood Association for litter pick ups in Arcadia Wash and at Pinecrest Park, for digging basins for planting and rainwater collection, and for celebrating the opening of the Little Free Library at the park. We receive community donations and provide an on-campus food bank and clothing swap to help those in need and offer our campus as a space for community organizations to meet outside of school hours. We’re even able to offer the occasional bicycle to a child in need thanks to our generous community.
We are grateful to be a part of this neighborhood, this city, and this part of the world, and we’re grateful for how our roots have been able to intermingle with those of the community living and growing around us. We make plans, share resources and skills, and collaborate together on ideas for how we can build a better community for all of us. Like the saguaro and the trees whose shade they grow in, our school would not be able to grow and thrive without having put down roots in the right place, and today we are excited to announce a new way for us to celebrate our connection and commitment to the community we joined over fourteen years ago: we are changing our school name to Arcadia Sky Community School.
Why change the name? A desert sky is a beautiful thing, and we are grateful for every day that we get to spend under ours. Yet when we tell people about our school, we say “Community Roots, Sonoran Soil.” That soil and those roots aren’t up in the sky or in an unnamed patch of desert. They’re in the Pinecrest Neighborhood, in a plot of land on the east side of Arcadia Avenue. We still wish to celebrate the vision that guides us as we work to support and empower each of our students as they grow, a vision that is as boundless and beautiful as the sky. We still wish to celebrate the ways our community has supported us and continues to do so: we are a school founded in and sustained by our community. Thus, Arcadia Sky Community School. This is our home and our community, and we are grateful for our neighbors and their continued support and guidance. We are excited to continue to grow, build, connect and learn, with all who choose to join us.
Gracias por su apoyo constante, sin su precencia, tal y como son, no hay comunidad.
