The 9,000-square-foot addition to NPA's campus on Sparrow Avenue has classrooms and labs for furthering the school's science and art education, as STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering art and math.
NPA first broke ground for the STEAM building in May 2024. Planning started in late 2019 and continued through the COVID-19 pandemic, though Superintendent David Lykins said the need for additional STEAM facilities was identified in board strategic planning as early as 2010.
Lykins said the addition is intended to help prepare students for college, introducing them at an earlier age to “technology, equipment and science” they might need to use in the future.
“[We’re excited] to be able to create this opportunity for a learning environment to really get our kids integrated into what we’re doing with our STEAM programs and trying to get them to be game changers and thought provokers and problem solvers," he said.
Partners in the construction included SPS+ Architects, Kinney Construction Services and OneAZ Credit Union. Donations to the school’s fundraising campaign for the new buildings covered the cost of furnishing and equipping the building, according to Lykins.
Students had the chance to visit the new building last week as part of NPA's annual Back to School Days event. School Principal Vada Visockis said “you could have heard the crackles of excitement" during that event, with some students expressing a new interest in engineering or asking to change their class schedules.
The first day of the 2025-26 school year for NPA students was Tuesday. Lykins said more than 670 students are enrolled in NPA this year — which is the largest total in the school’s history.
Subjects taught in the building include chemistry, biology and ceramics and new programs in computer science and engineering.
Classrooms in the STEAM building were ready for students’ return the evening before, with stools resting on top of the lab work tables and printed copies of class syllabi stacked on the counters.
There's also a time capsule in the walls set to be opened in 2050.
During the ceremony, Ian Cribbs, OneAZ vice president of business banking and NPA board vice president, said the idea behind the project was to keep the education NPA provides relevant to students and their needs.
The addition of this building expands the number of NPA students who are able to participate in science, technology and art classes.
Ceramics class capacity went from one class with about a dozen students to four class periods of up to 20.
The school added engineering and computer science classes, developing a pathway to give interested students the option to take those subjects throughout their middle and high school careers.
NPA also offers anatomy and physiology and sports medicine classes, which will be in the building.
“It’ll allow a whole area of exploration for our students,” Visockis said. “... We wanted to have a [space] that was relevant and could meet the needs of our students and would allow them to properly explore all of those STEAM concepts and standards.”
Visockis said the new STEAM options will also further NPA’s goal of helping make postsecondary education affordable to its graduates. Visockis said the school offers enough for students to earn an associate's degree while still in high school. Two graduates in the Class of 2025 did so, she said, and others completed the equivalent of more than a semester.
The expanded programs add to the total of dual-enrollment classes and subjects offered. Offering dual enrollment at the high school level gives students greater flexibility in what they do in college as well as in their ability to pay for it, according to Visockis.
“One of my philosophical things is that I want our students to attend college, but we have worked really hard to try to help them figure out how to pay for it so they don’t graduate in debt. Or we minimize that as much as we can," she said.
Visockis described the building as first phase of STEAM efforts at NPA, with two upcoming phases yet to be determined. Deciding what to do with the space freed up in the existing campus by moving STEAM classes into the new building and preparing the rooms for that use will be part of an upcoming stage.
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