Rincon High School Beginnings

   - Tucson Daily Citizen 13 Aug 1958, Wed

“Rincon, Tucson’s newest high school, completed in May, about two months ahead of schedule, will be open Sept. 2 for about 1,200 students in freshman, sophomore and junior classes.

The $3,000,000 plant on a 40-acre site at E. 5^th St and N. Swan Rd, includes 68 class units, shops, cafeteria, library, boys gymnasium and administration building.

Deleted from the original plans were an auditorium, girls gymnasium, outdoor amphitheater, athletic fields and site development due to high cost of materials and labor at the time the contract was awarded.

The school was designed by Place and Place, architects and was built by Sundt Construction Co and Shipman & Codd. It is designed for a future capacity of 2,000 students and facilities are larger than the original structures of the other new high schools in District No 1. Pueblo was built in 1956 for a capacity of 1,300 and Catalina, built in 1957 for a capacity of 1,800. Rincon’s cost was $12.55 per square foot.

The first floor of one wing of the large classroom building is devoted to science classrooms, and laboratories and home economics rooms.

Hanley Slagel is principal of the new high school. Assistant principals are Richard Paver and Howard Leigh. Miss Ruth Pinkston is dean of girls. Teachers are being transferred to Rincon from the other high schools of the district, and new teachers have been added to the staff.

A planning committee of students from the junior high and high schools who will attend Rincon was formed in the spring. School colors of purple and white and the name, “Rangers,” for the athletic teams has been selected.

Joint city-school district recreation facilities for Rincon and the adjacent area to the east are under discussion and have been approved in principle by the Tucson City Council.

Boundaries for Rincon are Alvernon, Speedway, Kolb Rd. and Davis-Monthan AFB. All students presently enrolled at other high schools were given a choice of remaining at their schools or moving to Rincon.

A total of 565 students from Vail and Townsend Junior High Schools will enter 9^th grade at Rincon; 150 Catalina students living in the Rincon area are transferring to the new school; and 557 THS students will move to Rincon, according to statistics at the end of the 1957-58 school year.

The entire plant was turned over to the school district June 1, enabling the staff to move equipment and materials into the new school during the summer to prepare for the Sept. 2 opening of the school.

Because there is no girls’ gym, provisions were made in the 1958-59 budget for construction of outdoor courts for tennis, volleyball and other sports.

Since this will be the school’s first year of operation there will be no senior class this year.

Rincon’s faculty number 68, including five counselors. The mathematics faculty was increased by one during the summer because of the demand for mathematics by students. Over 90 per cent of students registering for classes at Rincon indicated a desire for more than the required mathematics.”

Thank you to Jennie Meyer for providing this material.