Alma Farrell Innovation Academy celebrated its grand opening Monday with a ribbon cutting and tours of the new campus in Sorrento, according to InMaricopa. The school is located at 17541 N. Sorrento Blvd. and is set to welcome students on July 27.
Maricopa Unified School District Superintendent Tracey Lopeman and other district leaders spoke during the event about the school’s future and the history behind its name. The academy honors the late Alma Farrell, who served as a teacher and superintendent in MUSD and whose family also had ties to a local farm and restaurant.
The school will offer a K-8 work-based learning model, which the district says is the first of its kind in Arizona and also Maricopa Unified’s first K-8 school. According to the school website, students will learn in multi-age instructional houses designed to build belonging, stability, and identity.
Principal Elizabeth Allison said the school will represent the community Farrell helped shape. During the tours, student guides showed guests classrooms built around collaboration, with clustered tables and sliding glass doors connecting learning spaces.
The project has been in development for three years, and district leaders said every part of the campus was intentionally designed with students in mind.
