K-12 and higher ed
Schools, Districts and Campuses
Classrooms, labs, kitchens, site lighting and service upgrades, built against a calendar that does not move.
ASU has roughly $1 billion of construction underway across metro Phoenix, and AZBEX forecasts Arizona K-12 construction rising from $542.6 million in 2025 to $773.5 million in 2026, higher education from $368.2 million to $480.4 million. The money is there. What makes education different is that most of the work has to land between the last day of school and the first.
The Phoenix education market right now
Arizona's total construction volume is forecast down for 2026, and that is entirely industrial. Nearly every other sector is up, and education moves fastest in percentage terms.
| Sector | 2025 | 2026 forecast |
|---|---|---|
| K-12 | $542.6M | $773.5M |
| Higher education | $368.2M | $480.4M |
| Healthcare | $656.9M | $722.7M |
| Industrial | $14.48B | $11.6B |
| All Arizona construction | $31.9B | $31.1B |
ASU drives most of the higher-ed number: a $200 million ASU Health building in downtown Phoenix starting July 2026, the $187 million McCain Library in Tempe, about 800 residential beds replacing Best, Irish and Hayden halls, and a $66 million Student Union renovation at Polytechnic in Mesa. Three campuses, three permitting jurisdictions.
Maricopa Community Colleges reads differently. The district describes itself as reinvesting in existing facilities and addressing deferred maintenance rather than running a new expansion bond, so treat that work as renovation-shaped.
K-12 is uneven. Of 27 bond and override measures on the November 2024 Maricopa County ballot, 18 passed — but measures were failing in Deer Valley, Peoria, Buckeye Union, Chandler and Higley. The statewide growth figure is real; a uniform bond boom is not.
The summer window is the whole schedule
On a school job the calendar is a specification. There is no float at the back end, because children occupy the building on a published date. What breaks a summer is procurement and paperwork, not labor.
- Gear released months ahead. APS requires every commercial meter enclosure to be submitted through an APS representative for approval before it is manufactured (ESRM 302.9), and commercial services above 200 amps need EUSERC-approved CT-rated enclosures. APS publishes no committed lead time, so we will not quote one.
- Permit in hand before the last bell. Phoenix's July 2026 turnaround report put initial commercial plan review at 30 calendar days for major projects against a 45-day goal, and 33 days for minor against a 25-day goal. Small commercial currently runs slower than large.
- Utility application filed. SRP sets no meter until an application for service is made, and trench and conduit must be inspected before backfill.
- Conditions surveyed while the building is occupied. Panel schedules in a 1970s school are fiction. Better to find the mislabeled feeder in April than in June with the ceiling open.
In Phoenix the initial inspection and the first correction re-inspection are covered by the permit fee. After that it is $195 each, including an inspection called before the work was ready. After-hours inspections run $195 per hour, minimum $390, or $585 on a weekend.
One statute is worth knowing by name: A.R.S. section 9-835 makes every Arizona municipality publish its review time frames and limits the city to one comprehensive written correction request.
What the scope involves in a school
Classroom electrical is repetitive work at volume, with a device count that climbed as districts added displays and charging carts, on distribution sized for a different decade. The interesting parts are the ends — the service and the site.
- Service and distribution upgrades where the existing service cannot carry added mechanical load, kitchen equipment or charging. See service and distribution equipment and panel upgrades.
- Classroom and lab branch power — dedicated circuits for lab and CTE equipment, receptacle density matched to how the room is used now.
- Lighting and controls: troffers, occupancy and daylight controls, gym and auditorium lighting. Mostly LED retrofit work compressed into a few weeks.
- Site and parking lot lighting — pole bases, underground feeders and photometrics for a campus lit for evening events and dark enough not to bother the neighbors. See site lighting.
- Kitchen, mechanical and portable classroom power, plus bus and visitor charging.
Fire alarm and structured cabling are specialty licensed scopes and we do not bid them as our own. We carry the raceway, boxes, pathways and the power feed.
The jurisdiction decides the drawing
Arizona has no statewide building or electrical code. A.R.S. Title 9 lets each city adopt codes by reference and section 11-861 lets the county do the same for unincorporated areas, so two campuses of one institution can sit under two NEC cycles.
- Phoenix has enforced the 2023 NEC since 1 August 2025, Ordinance G-7397.
- Mesa moved to the 2023 NEC effective 8 January 2026, Glendale 9 January 2026, Chandler by Ordinance 5108. Scottsdale is on the 2020 NEC.
- Unincorporated Maricopa County is still on the 2017 NEC, two cycles behind Phoenix, and its energy code is voluntary.
- Tempe, Gilbert and Peoria we confirm with the city's building department before design. Published records conflict, and we will not design to an edition we have not verified.
Amendments matter more than the edition. Phoenix, unincorporated Maricopa County and Glendale amend NEC 250.118(4) so EMT alone is not an acceptable equipment grounding conductor — a wire-type EGC is required, and missing it is the most common correction notice an out-of-state contractor collects here. Phoenix and Glendale amend 334.10 to keep NM cable out of commercial buildings, and Glendale prescribes how a luminaire is tied off in a suspended ceiling, down to two 12-gauge wires at opposing corners run to the structure above.
Energy code splits the same scope across a city line. Phoenix deleted IECC C405.12 receptacle control, C405.13 energy monitoring and C405.15 on-site renewables, and made C408 commissioning optional. Two identical schools either side of that line are not the same bid.
The one construction code Arizona adopts statewide is the fire code. Ariz. Admin. Code R4-36-201 incorporates the 2024 International Fire Code, and the State Fire Marshal's office reviews new construction, remodels and additions to public, charter and private schools — while A.R.S. section 41-2146 carves out municipalities over 100,000 population that adopted their own. Who reviews a school's fire scope therefore depends on where the campus sits. Settle it early.
Utility coordination on a campus
Municipal boundaries are not utility boundaries. SRP lists 15 Valley cities it serves "all or in part" and APS serves portions of several of the same ones, while the City of Mesa runs its own municipal utility over roughly 5.5 square miles centered around downtown Mesa. Confirm it from a bill at the site or a call — APS 602-371-7171, SRP 602-236-8888.
The division of work sets the critical path. The customer trenches, installs conduit and pours the transformer pad; the utility sets the transformer, owns the meter and installs the CTs. Only utility employees energize. APS line extensions run under ACC Service Schedule 3, which requires all project costs paid in advance; SRP contributions in aid of construction are generally non-refundable.
One SRP change is worth flagging on an older campus. SRP no longer permits Customer-Owned Service after 6 July 2026 — and the rest of that note matters as much, because existing customer-owned conductors may be retained for maintenance, like-for-like replacements and right-sized service installations.
SRP's Business EV Charger rebate pays up to 100 percent of project cost for government, non-profit, school and multifamily sites, against 75 percent for general businesses. Caps are $20,000 per site for one to four stations and $40,000 for five or more, per program year, which runs 1 May to 30 April.
For a district with continuous work, Phoenix's Annual Facilities Program is often the right permitting vehicle — the plan reviewers are also the inspectors.
How we deliver it, and what we turn down
We hold four active Arizona ROC licenses — building, engineering, electrical and mechanical — so the trench, the pad, the gear, the branch work and the site lighting sit on one contract instead of four. In a summer window that matters, because the rescheduling happens inside our own office.
- Procurement first. Gear selected, submitted to the utility and released before the school year ends. On design-build work that happens during design.
- A written cutover sequence: which panel goes dead, when, what it feeds, and the fallback if it does not come back.
- An existing-conditions survey while the building still runs — feeder tracing, directories rebuilt, available fault current established. See power system studies.
- Phased occupancy planned deliberately, including a partial CO where a wing opens ahead of the punch list.
- Closeout a facilities department can use: directories, labeling and as-builts.
What we will not do. We are not an around-the-clock service company — posted hours are Monday to Thursday 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM and Friday 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and weekend work is scheduled and priced in advance. We do not bid fire alarm or structured cabling, and we will not commit to a summer completion on gear that has not been released.
For a summer program, the useful time to call is the winter before. Reach the Phoenix office at (602) 396-5216, or send drawings through contact.
Frequently asked questions
Can you finish a school project inside the summer break?
It depends almost entirely on what happened before the break started. The labor usually fits; procurement and paperwork are what fail. APS requires every commercial meter enclosure to be submitted through an APS representative for review and approval before the equipment is manufactured, and APS publishes no committed lead time, so gear has to be released months ahead. Phoenix's July 2026 report put initial commercial plan review at 30 to 33 calendar days, with minor commercial running slower than major, and civil and site plan reviews at 26 to 43 days. If the drawings and the gear order are settled over the winter, a summer window is realistic. If the first call comes in April, we will tell you which part of the scope can land and which should wait.
Which edition of the NEC applies to a school in the Phoenix area?
Whichever edition the jurisdiction issuing the permit has adopted, because Arizona has no statewide building or electrical code. Phoenix has enforced the 2023 NEC since 1 August 2025 under Ordinance G-7397. Mesa moved to the 2023 NEC effective 8 January 2026, Glendale effective 9 January 2026, and Chandler adopted it by Ordinance 5108 for plans submitted on or after 1 July 2025. Scottsdale is on the 2020 NEC. Unincorporated Maricopa County is still on the 2017 NEC, two cycles behind Phoenix. For Tempe, Gilbert and Peoria we confirm the current edition directly with that city's building department before design, because the published records conflict and we will not design to an edition we have not verified.
Who reviews the fire-related portion of a school project in Arizona?
It depends on where the campus sits, which is why it is worth settling early. The fire code is the one construction code Arizona adopts statewide: Arizona Administrative Code R4-36-201 incorporates the 2024 International Fire Code as the Arizona State Fire Code, and the Office of the State Fire Marshal reviews new construction, remodels, alterations and additions to public, charter and private schools. A.R.S. section 41-2146 then carves out municipalities over 100,000 in population that have adopted a nationally recognized fire code and assumed jurisdiction, which covers most large Valley cities. Ask in the first design meeting rather than at submittal, because the answer changes who you submit to.
Do you work on occupied campuses during the school year?
Yes, and that work is scheduled rather than reactive. It means off-hours switching, temporary power, phased cutovers and a written sequence agreed with the facilities department before anyone opens a panel. Our posted hours are Monday to Thursday 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM and Friday 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and work outside those hours is planned and priced in advance. Bear in mind that after-hours inspections in Phoenix carry their own cost, at 195 dollars per hour with a two-hour minimum just outside normal inspection hours and a three-hour minimum further out or on weekends and holidays.
Is there help paying for EV or bus charging at a school?
In SRP territory, the Business EV Charger rebate pays up to 100 percent of project cost for government, non-profit, school and multifamily sites, compared with 75 percent for general businesses. Caps are 20,000 dollars per site location for a project of one to four stations and 40,000 dollars for five or more, per program year, with preapproval required above 15,000 dollars, and chargers must supply at least 20 amps per port. The program year runs 1 May to 30 April and the terms are reissued annually, so confirm the current customer program manual with SRP before building a budget around a figure. APS territory runs different programs, so the first question is always which utility serves the site.
How do we find out which utility serves our campus?
You cannot tell from the city name or the ZIP code. SRP lists 15 Valley cities it serves all or in part, and APS serves portions of several of the same cities, so the boundary runs through neighborhoods rather than along municipal lines. The City of Mesa also operates its own municipal electric utility across roughly 5.5 square miles centered around downtown Mesa, serving more than 18,000 customers. The reliable checks are the utility name printed on an electric bill for the site, the APS Phoenix Metro service territory map, an SRP facility map request, or a call to APS at 602-371-7171 or SRP at 602-236-8888. The standards manual, the application portal and the cost rules all differ, so it gets confirmed before we price a service.
Get a price on this scope
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Send us the plans, the scope, or just the problem. We will tell you what it takes. Call (602) 396-5216 or request a bid online.