Sunnyside Unified School District covers 93.6 square miles in the southern part of the City of Tucson and areas adjacent in Pima County, including the northern two miles of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Established in 1921, it is the second largest district in Pima County, Arizona; its neighbors include Raytheon, Tucson International Airport, Texas Instruments and Intuit.

Sunnyside serves more than 17,000 students preK-12 in 22 schools, including two large high schools. The District operates an early childhood education center that is new in 2010-11, 13 elementary schools (grades K-5), five middle schools (grades 6-8), and three high schools (grades 9-12) including one alternative education school. The district serves families with children from birth to 5 years of age as well as preK-12 students. All SUSD schools have full-time counselors, registered nurses, music teachers, art teachers, physical education teachers and librarians.

The percentage of students who are identified as minority is 94.4%. Specifically, the ethnic make-up of the student body is 87.7% Hispanic, 5.6% Anglo, 4.1% Native American, 2.1% African American, and 0.5% Asian American. Approximately 86% of SUSD students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. About one-third of students are classified as English language learners (ELL). Approximately 14% of the district’s student population receive Special Education services.

There are more than 2,000 District employees. In addition, the District employs approximately 150 substitute teachers and 80 classified substitute employees. The District’s Maintenance & Operations budget for 2010-11 is $90.1 million, a reduction of $5.4 million from 2009-10.

The District’s high school graduation rate between 2002 and 2006 was about 65%, and from 2004 to 2006 nearly 40% of freshmen were not advancing to sophomore status. A sense of urgency led to the development in 2007 of Project Graduation, a comprehensive multi-phased, research-based graduation effort. It includes a site-based graduation plan; online, after-school and Saturday classes for credit recovery; a districtwide attendance component; an intense focus on freshmen; advisory periods for all middle schools and high schools; an incentive program, The Digital Advantage, which awards laptop computers to students who achieve the Four A’s; a transition program for eighth-graders preparing for high school; technology training and loaner laptops for parents; and professional development and 1-to-1 computing for every teacher. The Digital Advantage’s newest program, 5th-Grade Digital Advantage, will extend 1-to-1 computing by assigning a netbook computer to every fifth-grader in the district’s 13 elementary schools. The Sunnyside District has gained state and national attention for Project Graduation’s impact on attendance, freshman promotion rates and especially high school graduation numbers. In 2009, a record high 715 students graduated. A total of 821 students graduated in 2010, up from 715 in 2009 and 598 in 2008.