Mesa Public Schools approves expanding 2 junior high campuses to include high schoolers

Mesa Public Schools is restructuring two of its junior high campuses to include high school students. The district has declining enrollment, and officials say this follows requests from parents for smaller school environments.

Mesa school’s governing board recently approved the creation of Shepherd College Preparatory and Franklin High School on existing junior high campuses that serve seventh and eighth graders.

The preparatory academy will be housed at Shepherd Junior High, which is led by Principal Jill Benza.

“We try to teach our students about our community and support our community, we do grade checks in there, so we’re going to continue with that into our high school but model each grade level for grade level appropriate things they are doing," Benza said.

Shepherd College Preparatory intends to enroll ninth graders in the next school year.

Franklin High School will be on the Brimhall Junior High’s campus, enrolling ninth and possibly 10th graders, also in 2026.

Jeffrey Abrams is the principal of Franklin Accelerated Academy, which will share a campus with Franklin High School.

“As far as those core course offerings, they’re going to have AP and dual enrollment —[this] is the goal — as long as certified staff can be hired to teach those courses," Abrams said.

He says high school electives and sports are going to be more limited.