Dysart Unified School District


Dysart Unified School District is a school district in Maricopa County, Arizona. It has 24,000 pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students in the Northwest Phoenix Metropolitan area. The district encompasses, serving parts of El Mirage, Glendale, Surprise, Youngtown, and Maricopa County. The district is home to 20 K-8 schools, four comprehensive high schools, and one alternative program. The district has AdvancED Accreditation, the NCA Model School District Award, NSBA Technology Spotlight Award, and is home to a national elementary school principal of the year and two Arizona teachers of the year.

History

The district was founded by Nathaniel Dysart who was a rancher in the valley. The district itself, the main facility, and Dysart road are all named after him. Prior to 2001, the district had only 5 elementary schools, and 1 high school. However, due to the exponential growth of the City of Surprise, the district became one of the fastest growing districts in Arizona. In the 2000s, the district built at least 1 school per year. By the end of the 2000s, the district had a total of 24 schools. In 2013 however, 1 elementary school was closed due to low numbers and reopened as the current location of Sundown Mountain, the district's alternative school.

Schools

K-8 schools

In December 2009, Dysart Unified School District became the first Arizona School District to switch nearly one-third, or 3,000 of their desktop computer systems to a Linux based operating system from the proprietary Microsoft Windows. The executive director of business services for the district estimated that the switch saved the district nearly $108,000 in what would have been used to pay for an annual license fee for the Windows OS and Office software. The upgraded systems were approximately five to six years old, and were said to be too old to invest in upgrades to the latest Microsoft product. After revisions in April 2010, the Arizona Department of Education now requires public and charter schools to consider free and open source software in development of new IT plans.