A brief history lesson...
Cave Creek's first school was near the Howard Ranch. In the late 1880's, it was moved to about where Cave Creek Road crosses New River Rd. today. In 1950, Cave Creek had a little white school house. Next, a new four-room school was completed and one room of the old school was designated to house the Cave Creek Branch Library in 1960. A small corral was built behind the school for students horses. Another four-room school building was completed in 1964, at which time the corral was removed.
By 1967, school enrollment had grown to 130 students with a staff of eight teachers. The area continued to grow and more schools were built as part of the Cave Creek Unified School District. In 1995, having outgrown the longtime Cave Creek School, the old Cactus Shadows High School was converted to an elementary school, and we moved from School House and Cave Creek Road to 60th Street just south of Carefree Highway and became Desert Sun Elementary. In the fall of 1999, conversion at the site began to make it into a second middle school (Sonoran Trails Middle School) for the district and on January 7, 2000, Desert Sun began the second half ot the year at this location
