Atwater to break ground on new $30 million school. Here’s when it’s expected to open

Atwater Elementary School District plans to break ground on a new $30 million school at the end of the year.

Juniper Elementary School will be Atwater Elementary School District’s newest school, serving about 600 students beginning in the fall of 2023, district officials confirmed this week.

Aaron Delworth, director of business services at Atwater Elementary School District, said the project idea has circulated for several years. District officials said the new school would help the district’s overcrowded classrooms.

The entire project is estimated to cost $30 million. Twenty million in funds comes from the Measure E bond, a school improvement bond that the district passed a few years ago, and $10 million of the funds comes from the district’s budget, which has been set aside for several years. After Measure E was passed, the board unanimously voted to approve the project in June of 2018.

“The generous support of the Atwater Community on Measure E will enable the district to alleviate the current overcrowding we are experiencing at most of the eight schools in the district and will also allow for new growth in the district,” Superintendent Sandra Schiber wrote in an email to the Sun-Star.

Delworth said project completion is expected by late 2022 or early 2023.

The building would be on 10 acres of land, located at Juniper Avenue and Bridgewater Street, in front of Joan Faul Park.

The new school would serve approximately 600 students from Transitional Kindergarten through the sixth grade. There would be four classrooms for TK and Kindergarten and 21 classrooms serving first through sixth grade.

In addition, the school will have 45 employees, which includes administrators, support staff, and faculty.

The school will have administrative offices, a multi-purpose building, and athletic fields.

Other amenities include electric vehicle charging stations, a STEM lab incorporated in the learning resources center, a large kitchen area, and an incorporated indoor stage for school productions.

All of the school facilities would be solar-panel ready.

“We think the taxpayers supporting this bond is what got this project to come to fruition,” Delworth said. “I think the students and the community of Atwater are going to be very happy about it.”