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Wright School Logo John B. Wright Elementary School Page

The John B. Wright School, at 4311 E. Linden Street, is an important part of the Midtown Neighborhood. Many of the activities sponsored by the Midtown Neighborhood Association are focused on benefiting the school.

FACTS ABOUT MNA's ASSOCIATION WITH WRIGHT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Midtown built park, including play equipment, for children
Midtown sponsored equipment for soccer field for kids
Monthly meeting place of Midtown Neighborhood Association
Midtown built Nature Garden (near our park)
Midtown helps to organize annual Halloween Party for kids.
Midtown sponsors and annual Christmas Party for kids.
Midtown joined with PTA to help raise funds for a new Marquee for Wright school

LOOKING BACK...

History of John B. Wright Elementary School.

Wright Elementary School was opened early in 1954, at 4311 Linden Street. It contained 16 classrooms, a multi-purpose room and offices built by Shiff Construction for $375,901 in federal funds. Four classrooms were built in 1959 at a cost of $88,934. Architect was Blanton & Cole.

First Principal of Wright School was Mrs. Alice Hale, who retired in 1956...

The school was named for John B. Wright, who served on the District 1 School Board from 1906 until 1916.

Wright was the son of Charles Weston Wright who moved to Tucson in early 1888 and practiced law until his death in December 1900. John B. Wright was educated at Georgetown, Fordham, Notre Dame and the University of Michigan from which he received his law degree in 1894. He came to Tucson, practiced law for a short time and then moved to Yuma, returning after the death of his father to practice law in Tucson from 1900 until his death in July, 1934.

He was appointed to the School Board on October 16, 1906, to complete the term of Z. T. Vail and served as Board Clerk from 1908 until 1916. That year, Wright was defeated for re-election by Harry A. Drachman. Wright was well known throughtout the community for his wit and frequently appeared as toastmaster for numerous civic organizations.

(this information was gleaned from The First Hundred Years, The History of Tucson School District 1, Tucson, Arizona, 1867-1967, by James F. Cooper and edited by John H. Fahr. Mr. Cooper was the husband of our current MNA Vice President, Martha Cooper. )

CURRENT EVENTS...

The new marquee (photo this page) was installed in April of this year.
JBW Principal Lisa Langford reported at the April MNA meeting that the book fair held in March was so successful that JBW was able to give every child that attends JBW a free book. Many thanks and congratulations went out to Lisa and JBW.
Students at JBW are giving their input to the City of Tucson on the new libary and learning center. Manuel Saenz wrote the following note in support of the library. He presented it to the library design committee at their April 19, 2001 meeting:

Letter from JBW 5th Grader Manuel SaenzI Manuel Saenz, a 5th grader at John B. Wright Elementary School got involved with the Library Committee with Midtownn because I am part of a group trying to get new playground equipment for our school. We wrote to Martha Cooper at Midtown asking for their input. Midtown said they would be happy to help us. They liked the idea and decided to let one of us work on the library committee.

LOOKING AHEAD....

Air Conditioning will be installed at the school this summer and fall.

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