Great Hearts breaks ground on first Arizona campus outside Maricopa County

APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz — Great Hearts Academies broke ground on its 25th Arizona campus, planting a shovel into Pinal County for the first time. The ceremony at the Blossom Rock master-planned community in Apache Junction featured students wielding kid-sized shovels and hard hats, a detail the organization says reflects exactly who the school is being built for.

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Great Hearts Blossom Rock is set to open in fall 2027 as a tuition-free K–5 academy. The land itself was donated by Brookfield Residential, the developer behind the surrounding neighborhood, a partnership that Dan Scoggin, Great Hearts co-founder and academies officer, describes as a first for the network in Arizona.

“Children can walk to the school. This is going to be one of our most residentially embedded community schools, “said Scoggin. 

Brookfield Residential’s donation accelerates access to Great Hearts’ classical model in one of the Valley’s fastest-growing corridors. Scoggin said the partnership reflects a broader trend: master-planned community developers increasingly view high-quality schools as a primary amenity. “What’s the one thing moms and dads are going to ask about first, ‘is there a good school?'” he said. “Great Hearts can certainly offer that option.”

The groundbreaking comes as Arizona is experiencing what observers describe as an unprecedented wave of public charter school closures. Scoggin acknowledged the tension directly, noting that declining kindergarten enrollment is a real pressure facing many schools. But he argues classical education is bucking that trend nationally, with more than 700,000 students now enrolled in classical schools across the country.

The network has drawn over 550 families onto the Blossom Rock interest list ahead of the 2027 opening, Scoggin says, and families are already driving up from Queen Creek, east Mesa, and throughout the Southeast Valley. The school’s location within a phased residential development means enrollment is expected to grow alongside the community itself.

Scoggin is candid that the Blossom Rock campus is being designed with a purpose beyond instruction. In a community where most residents will be newcomers, many relocating from elsewhere in the Valley or out of state, he envisions the school as the social anchor of a neighborhood still taking shape.

“We hope to be part of the founding of a community, not just the founding of a school,” Scoggin said. Athletics, music ensembles, and theatrical performances are all part of the vision for how the campus will be used beyond school hours.

Families interested in enrolling can visit the Great Hearts Blossom Rock website to sign up for the interest list or request a meeting with the Headmaster directly.

This story is made possible through grant funding from the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.

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