(Photo by Casey Kuhn - KJZZ)

A rendering of part of the new high school near Goodyear.

Southwest Valley cities continue to expand and develop, and school districts are growing to meet demand by adding schools.

The Agua Fria Union High School District broke ground Thursday on its fifth high school near the White Tank Mountains.

The future school will be at West Bethany Home and Perryville roads, in Waddell just west of Goodyear.

“We’re one of three districts in the state of Arizona that can say they’ve had almost 20 years of continuous growth.”

Agua Fria Superintendent Dennis Runyan says the new school will ease overcrowding at two others. The district serves 8,000 high-school students.

“We have burst at the seams, as they say, in our four high schools," Runyan said. "And we continue to grow and our class sizes were going over 40 in a class at our schools.”

Runyan says the new, unnamed school will focus on STEM fields, and be built, in part, using money from bonds approved by the community.