Posted

ORO VALLEY, Ariz. (KGUN) — A new school built specifically for students with special needs celebrated its grand opening in Oro Valley Tuesday, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and community open house at its new campus on West Magee Road.

It's the third campus for Legacy Learning Community, an Arizona Department of Education-approved private special education school, and its first in the Tucson area. The organization already operates campuses in Show Low and Concho.

CEO Shad Housley said the idea for Legacy Learning Community started with a conversation years ago with a mother who had just learned her child had special needs.

"We were founded on the principle that we want to walk side by side with the parents in helping to educate their child, to help them essentially be the architect of their own future," Housley said.

Housley, who was born and raised in Cochise County, said he wanted to bring that mission back to Southern Arizona. After looking at options around the region, he said Oro Valley was the right fit.

The new campus will serve students in kindergarten through 12th grade, with enrollment capped at 30 students — a deliberate choice, Housley said.

"By keeping it small, keeping it intimate, our staff... are specialized," Housley said. "They understand the needs of the students, and they can keep the environment where it's conducive for all the students' learning."

Housley said that small scale matters especially for students with autism, who can be sensitive to overstimulating environments. Staff paraprofessionals at the school are trained as registered behavior technicians, and the campus also provides occupational and physical therapy on-site as needed for students' individual education plans.

For two brothers who've spent the last five years at the same school, the move to Legacy means starting a new chapter together.

"Mostly, I'm excited about that it's a new school, and mostly we can do different stuff and other things like that," the older brother said.

His younger brother, Leo, said he's looking forward to it too.

"It's like fun," Leo said. "We've been going to the same school for five years... and I'm just so excited to be in his class."

Leading the campus is Dr. Samantha Molitor, who spent years teaching special education in both public and private schools before stepping into the director role. She said that classroom experience will shape how she supports both students and staff.

"I want it to be a place where people want to go," Molitor said. "Because once they want to be there and they feel supported and feel welcomed, you get to grow, and that growth is so important."

Tuesday's open house also featured refreshments from the Tucson Special Eats Dessert Truck, a business founded in 2022 that provides employment opportunities for individuals with special needs.

Legacy Learning Community officially opens for classes August 5. Housley said the Oro Valley campus still has room to enroll, and families interested in touring or applying can reach out directly to the school. If the campus reaches capacity, he said a waitlist will be available, and Legacy will consider opening additional sites in the area if demand grows.

Enrollment information is available at .

——-Kenny Darr is . He joined the team in January 2023. Before arriving in Arizona he was an Anchor and Reporter at KADN in Lafayette, LA. Share your story ideas with Kenny by emailing [email protected] or by connecting on , or

The water is said to contain high levels of ‘forever chemicals’ linked to cancer and other public health and environmental concerns.

Town of Oro Valley

A plan to revive a community pond in Oro Valley is drawing backlash from a city-contracted conservationist group for the use of reclaimed water, which they say contains harmful contaminants.

Oro Valley’s Vistoso Pond, located within the Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve, has been without water since the Rancho Vistoso Golf Course closed in 2018.

After eight years, construction has begun in the area to restore the pond, with the aim of reviving desert habitat in the area.

Oro Valley’s original plan in 2024 was to build a desert garden in the former 2.5-acre pond area. Those plans were eventually overturned by the town council in 2025.

“We did have a lot of community feedback,” said Rosalyn Epting, Oro Valley’s parks and recreations director. “Everyone remembered the pond feature and took pictures around it and what it looked like. Council gave us a change of direction, and we went back to design and they designed the pond for us.”

The new design was accepted by the Oro Valley Town Council in September 2025 by a 4-2 vote.

According to the plans, the 8-feet-deep pond will be filled using reclaimed wastewater from Tucson. The projected cost is over $2 million.

In March 2026, Archaeology Southwest, a local non-profit administering the conservation easement of the Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve, sent a 60-day notice to the town council, followed by an open letter expressing concern over the use of reclaimed wastewater, which contains high levels of per-and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals, or ‘forever chemicals’.

“They don't break down in natural ecosystems and instead they accumulate,” said John Welch, the organization’s vice president of preservation and collaboration. “Interestingly, right after the town reversed its decision and decided to recreate this pond inside of the nature preserve, the EPA designated PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances.”

PFAS chemicals have drawn concern for environmental and public health reasons, and have been linked to cancer, developmental issues and hormone disruption. They can also disrupt the pH balance of soil and decrease respiration, which can negatively impact soil health and affect plants and crops.

Archaeology Southwest said they took soil samples from the bottom of Vistoso Pond, which had previously been filled using reclaimed water, prior to construction to have them tested at the Arizona Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants. The results came back with PFAS levels far above safe contact standards.

Welch said despite Archeology Southwest’s contract with Oro Valley, the town continued to proceed with its plans to use reclaimed water for the pond, which he called “not consistent with common sense or with good government practice for maintaining the health of its citizens, the visitors to the place or the bigger environment.”

“The contract that Archaeology Southwest has with the town of Oro Valley specifically prohibits the use or storage or importation of hazardous substances,” Welch said. “We said if you want to have a pond, you can have a pond, you just can't use reclaimed wastewater. And the city said, ‘Well, we're going to do it anyway.’ We formally notified them that this plan was in violation of the conservation easement.”

Oro Valley Public Works declined to comment, saying they would follow up ‘when more information is available’.

In a statement, Oro Valley spokesperson Phillip Cantrell stated that the project’s contractor obtained the necessary permits prior to the beginning of the construction.

“The Town directed its design consultant to confirm the pond’s permit status and evaluate whether the project meets applicable environmental quality standards. Based on the review to date, EPA and ADEQ do not currently require permits related to PFAS soil remediation for this work. The Town will continue coordinating with the appropriate agencies, including ADEQ and Pima County, as needed and will keep residents informed as the project continues.”

Epting confirmed that the town is moving forward with reclaimed water for the project. Construction started on Monday, Aug. 10.

Apart from restoring the old pond, further development plans in the area include five new parking spaces and a memorial area.

Oro Valley is aiming for substantial completion for the project by November 2026.

After three years of talking, listening, thinking, and writing by countless residents, Oro Valley’s next 10-year general plan is on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot.

The plan, OV’s Path Forward, is up for a “yes” or “no” vote within Proposition 431.

When voting, go deep to find Proposition 431; “it’s the very last question on the ballot,” said Milini Simms, the town principal planner who has dedicated 90% of her work time these last three years to OV’s Path Forward.

Simms’ boss, Oro Valley Planning Manager Bayer Vella, says simply, “it’s the only proposition created by and decided by residents of Oro Valley.”

What it is

OV’s Path Forward is “a 10-year plan that sets goals, policies and actions” to be followed and undertaken by staff, Simms continued. “Measurable actions.”

It contains 286 action items for staff to address over the course of a decade. Oro Valley’s current plan, Your Voice Our Future, has 310 action items. Simms points out “100% of the last plan’s actions have been addressed.”

“We call ours in Oro Valley an action plan,” she told the Oro Valley Water Utility at one of her dozens of presentations on OV’s Path Forward.

The result is a “measurable action plan that gets results,” Vella said. “You actually watch these things get implemented, these amazing things that are driven by residents.”

OV’s Path Forward “prioritizes residents’ values for safety, scenic views, quality parks and roads,” according to the website, OVpathforward.

Topic areas are public safety, community character, arts and culture, parks, recreation and trails, environment, climate and energy, water resources and conservation, economic development and tourism, transportation, housing and land use. Goals are identified for each topic. Accompanying policies are intended to guide actions “the town will take to achieve” each goal, the website said.

OV’s Path Forward “touches on what the community identified as important topics,” Simms said. “These are areas that influence Oro Valley’s quality of life.”

Same values, different emphasis

Simms said OV’s Path Forward “still reflects and maintains a lot of values from the last General Plan,” Your Voice, Our Future. Still, it is “a little bit different.”

“Ten years ago, we had a lot of land left for development,” she said. “The emphasis 10 years ago was definitely more on development.”

Now, with Oro Valley approaching buildout, OV’s Path Forward is “more reflecting a maturing community,” Vella said. “Many of the asks, reflected in action items, are about refinements. The values and priorities are essentially the same.

“Parks, gathering spaces, the needs of town finances, and water supply, are all more attuned to where we are now,” Vella said.

Ten years ago, Your Voice Our Future did not have sections on housing or town finances. Both are examined within OV’s Path Forward.

This plan “is what I would expect of a community closer to build-out,” Vella said. “The attention is to refinement, not creating new.”

Oro Valley’s extra lengths

State law requires towns of a certain size to create general plans every 10 years.

“Most other communities are doing what the state requires of them,” Simms said.

But Oro Valley “has always gone further than required,” said Vella, a town staff veteran who’s been around for no fewer than four general plans.

He remembers when Oro Valley voters defeated a general plan proposal in 2002. Looking back nearly 25 years, Vella believes it was defeated because too many people felt excluded from its creation.

That experience “fixed the value of having a massive, open tent, welcoming anyone and everyone to participate, to make this yours,” he said. “The residents who get involved make that happen. They did a fantastic job.”

Oro Valley residents contributed more than 10,700 comments to create OV’s Path Forward. Hundreds of people shared ideas, participating in online discussions and meetings to craft the vision statement, establish guiding principles and “set the goals, policies and actions that ensure the plan balances the needs and perspectives of a diverse community,” the town said in a release.

“The number of contributions set a historical precedence for the town and region,” according to an Aug. 12 staff report to the Oro Valley Town Council. “It also shows how dedicated OV residents are to ensuring the town upholds their values and expectations for the future.”

In turn, working groups involving almost 200 people directly participated in the writing, and re-writing, of OV’s Path Forward. Every working group was told, “all your work has to stay true to the community desires expressed in those 10,700 comments,” Simms said.

“We’re staying true to the global direction,” Vella said. “I’m proud of those 200 people. They not only bought into that ethos, they acted on it.”

Thousands of interactions

Simms continues to talk about OV’s Path Forward. She plans to have tables at the Heirloom Farmers Market at Steam Pump Ranch on Oct. 10, and the Halloween Spooktacular event on Oct. 17. Homeowners’ associations are inviting her to speak, and are welcome to do so; she can be contacted at [email protected].

“We reach people where they are,” Vella said. Most people don’t have time to come to a government meeting, yet “they still have valuable input into the direction of the town.”

OV’s Path Forward “reflects all the community, not just one facet or another,” Simms said.

“It’s very rewarding to sit across from a group of residents, and learn, to hear what they think should be in the plan,” Vella said. “This is proactive planning. The town has always gone the extra mile to make sure residents are heard.”

The efforts of Simms, Vella and other town staffers have been widely and repeatedly praised by Mayor Joe Winfield and members of the Town Council. Simms has enjoyed the experience.

“There have been a lot of new learning opportunities,” she said. “I like community engagement; I think that’s important. I find it valuable.”

How to read it

OV’s Path Forward is available online at https://www.ovpathforward.com/. Hard copies can be found in lobbies on the town campus, at the front desk at the Oro Valley Branch Library, and at the Oro Valley Community and Recreation Center.

“It is a really long document,” Simms said. The portable digital file is 137 pages.

People can turn to the town’s Facebook and Instagram accounts “for bite-sized chunks,” she said. There are also archived newsletters, news articles and podcasts about OV’s Path Forward on the website.

Simms urges people to turn to a section that is of particular interest to them — perhaps water or public safety, housing or land use, transportation or town finances — and read what is proposed.

“What I tell folks is there’s something in it for everyone,” Simms said.

A say in the town’s future

Simms and Vella can’t lobby for or against OV’s Path Forward. If voters reject it, the current plan “stays in place until we can get another plan approved,” Simms said. “We would start outreach all over again.”

Even if residents disagree with some language within, “most people say ‘I think I can live with it,’” Vella said of the plan.

“This is the only long-range planning effort that goes to the voters,” Simms concluded. “If you want a say in the town’s future, this is the best way to make your voice heard.”

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - Rhonda Pina joined Devyn Shea on the Tucson Now desk to discuss her plan for the Oro Valley Town Council.

Pina spoke passionately about working with local businesses, and asking them what they specifically need from the Town Council.

As an example, Pina wondered aloud how the Town Council could help them further in order to increase tourism and revenue for the city.

Pointing to her history as a commercial banker, Pina said she is able to look at the budget and see where changes can be made, both short and long-term.

“How best can we go get that revenue for the town?” she asked.

The revenue, in order to continue to provide services for the town that the community loves so much.

Services, such as public safety. Already one of the safest communities in Arizona, Pina lists safety as the top priority of her campaign. She tells Shea this is because the budget constantly has to be configured around ensuring the funding for public safety remains, so Oro Valley can keep that title.

Watch the full conversation in the video player above.

For more on Pina, click here.

To see all of the candidates Tucson Now has spoken to, click here.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Rhonda Pina joined 13 News’ Devyn Shea on Tucson Now to talk about it.

You can watch the interview in the video player.

Are you streaming 13 News?

Watch a free live stream of Tucson Now and 13 News at .

Be sure to download the free Tucson Now app which you can find on and .

If you are using a desktop computer, you can use your mobile device to scan the QR code below.

ORO VALLEY, Ariz. (KVOA) - Students at Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind started classes at a new Oro Valley campus on Monday.

The first day of school took place on Aug. 4 at the former Copper Creek Elementary facility. The school is now operating in the Amphitheater School District location after finalizing relocation plans earlier this year.

"We are excited to welcome students to our new campus," ASDB Superintendent Annette Reichman said.

Reichman stated that the transition provides improved facilities for students. "The opening of ASDB Oro Valley provides a safer, modern learning environment which will help us provide the best education opportunities available to the students we serve," Reichman said.

The relocation came after Amphitheater School District decided to close Copper Creek Elementary due to declining enrollment at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. ASDB officials learned about the closure in late 2025 and began exploring the possibility of moving operations there.

The ASDB Board of Directors approved the campus move in early 2026. Plans were then completed to transition students to the Oro Valley location.

"While we were sad to leave our Tucson campus, ASDB Oro Valley allows us to enhance our instruction methods and maintain tighter security for our students," Reichman said. "We look forward to becoming an integral part of the community and providing opportunities for our students to reach their goals."

Financial pressures have mounted for ASDB over the past four years, officials said. The school has faced reduced legislative reauthorization terms and increased demands for agency oversight, making the relocation necessary.

ASDB continues operating its statewide cooperative learning programs with public schools and maintains its Phoenix campus, Phoenix Day School for the Deaf. Students will attend the Oro Valley campus for the next five years under a lease agreement with Amphitheater School District, officials said.