TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The TUSD board voted and approved the sale of a former elementary school to a local non-profit organization.
Flowers & Bullets Collective has leased the site where Julia Keen Elementary School used to run in the Barrio Centro neighborhood.
The non-profit works as a sustainability and arts center for underserved communities.
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“After there was a fire in the building recently, we realized we needed to speed things up and work on getting the demolition done quicker,” said the TUSD Operations Program Manager, Bryant Nodine.
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The TUSD board approved the sale and OK’d the non-profit to start demolition on the building.
“We want to remodel, remediate the building. We’ve been outside for four years and we’ve been able to utilize the space in an important way through movie screenings, workshops, health and wellness and education, agricultural classes- because for us sustainability and art is just an excuse to be able to talk about much deeper issues that are going on in Tucson.”
Co-founder, Tito Romero, said this opens doors to more opportunities and to work with even more schools and re-entry programs.
“There’s going to be three middle schools that are going to be creating a pilot program at the Flowers & Bullets site for a composting system.”
What was once an abandoned building will now continue to grow with plans to inspire others.
“What you’re doing may be inspiring to some other communities within the Tucson community to do the same thing,” said TUSD Governing Board member, Natalie Luna Rose.
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Faith Abercrombie is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before coming to KGUN, Faith worked as a videographer for the Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation and as a reporter and producer on the youth suicide documentary, "Life is..." on Arizona PBS.
Share your story ideas with Faith by emailing faith.abercrombie@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
