Kyle Goree, 17, was a sophomore in 2009 when the student was stabbed at Buena High School.

"I was constantly getting threatened," said Goree. "There were a lot of gangs over at Buena and they were constantly picking on people and always getting in fights."

Goree is one of many students who have left Buena to come to Tombstone. And about half of Tombstone High's students come from out-of-district.

Fifty percent of Tombstone High sophomores passed the Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards test on their first attempt last year, ranking the school 188 out of the 396 Arizona high schools.

Evidence Tech Kierstin Smuda of the Tombstone's Marshals Office teamed up with Drug Free AZ to put on a presentation regarding prescription drugs held at Tombstone High School on Monday.

It is no secret that the illegal use of prescription drugs has become more of a problem within the last decade and Smuda wanted to put something together to help the students realize the effects of prescription drugs.

But in Tombstone High School's running back Sam Kriesel's situation, luck did not play in his favor in 2010.

College coaches all over the United States travel to cities to find high school athletes like Kriesel who they feel have enough skill to play for their university's team.

Getting recruited is almost every high school athlete's dream, but it is no easy feat.

It takes countless hours of work. Being a good player is just not enough coming from a small town.

"A pro-active approach is what is needed for a player, their family and high school coach to achieve their dream," said Bill Baker, recruiter and president of One Scouts Opinion Recruiting Service.

Last fall, Kriesel was looking to shake up the Arizona 2A Division, take his team to the playoffs, and cap off his career at Tombstone High.

Running, lifting weights and working on his skills, Sam was ready as the end of August crept closer.

Just minutes into the first game of the 2010 season against Safford High is when Kriesel's career took a turn for the worse.

He broke his right foot, which would later require season-ending surgery and a five month long recovery.

School officials said out-of-district students have been switching to the Tombstone district for the smaller school atmosphere and athletic opportunities, which has generated the spike in enrollment.

With 125-student freshman class – more than half from out-of-district – Principal Robert Devere asked the board on Feb. 9 to "take a leap of faith" in hiring a new teacher.

The last home boy's basketball game of the season was set to be the final match played on the court of Tombstone High School's old gym, located on the edge of the downtown.

The game at the old gym was planned as a retirement for and to say farewell to the historic gym.

Last week's cold snap, however, caused a pipe in the old gym to break, leading to flooding in the lobby and other water damage.

The broken water pipe did not stop fans in the area from attending the farewell basketball game last Friday, though there was a change of venue.

The rivalry match-up chosen for the farewell event, between Tombstone and Bisbee High, had to be played at the new gym.

Expected to begin construction in July, Smith believes the project will take 14 months.

Being approved for a Hilton franchise, The Grand Oriental Hotel will include retail shops along Sixth Street and Allen Street, and have residential condominiums on the east side of the property, where the old John L. Wyatt Elementary
school resides, according to the project's website.

Discounting last week's cold spell, moving to Arizona was essentially a decision Smith made because of, well, weather.

"I was working on a job in Breckenridge, Colo., building a big resort there," Smith said. "It had 39 feet of snow that winter, and I decided I didn't need that snow anymore. That's how I ended up down here."

With four degrees construction wasn't Smith's main job.

"I started education in De Soto, Kan.," he said. "I always had a construction company on the side. You can't live on a teacher's salary back in the 60s."

After Kansas, Smith traveled to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

"I had a metal building franchise, and they needed me to go over and build 700 housing units," he said.

With a budget of $5.2 million in 2009-2010, the potential cuts are 8.5 percent of the district's total expenditures last year.

Furthermore, the cuts could set in as late as Oct. 1, long after the district's budget is adopted on July 15.

Rather than laying off teachers, Superintendent Karl Uterhardt said the cuts would affect student supplies, such as textbooks, computers, and teacher's salaries.

Uterhardt said teacher layoffs could cramp Tombstone's classrooms and harm the students' learning.

Midstate Energy arrived at the Nov. 10 board meeting with a proposal to improve Tombstone Unified School District sites with more energy efficient appliances.

Ron Stalica and Tom Emanuelson persuaded the board to approve the proposal by guaranteeing that there would be no cost to the school district.