Elementary, middle schools to be separate at Rivera site

In less than a year’s time, what has been known since the 1960s as Rivera Middle School will become two campuses, one for seventh- and eighth-graders and the other for kindergartners through sixth-graders.

Merced City School District Board of Education members at a special meeting Nov. 6 decided to keep the elementary and middle schools separate. Construction is expected to be completed next August on a $7.3 million project to add an elementary school campus next to the middle school at 945 Buena Vista Drive.

Board members had a choice of making the new Rivera campus one big school with about 1,200 kindergarten through eighth-grade students or separating them into elementary and middle school sites. They voted 4-1 to do the latter, with board member Adam Cox dissenting.

“I am delighted we are able to build an elementary school there,” board member Susan Walsh said. “It makes financial sense in the long run as we plan for the future. We have done our best to keep our schools at a reasonable size.”

Construction began this month on the project, which will be completed in August 2015. The project includes building three six-classroom wings for elementary pupils, converting a building to be a shared administration building, and relocating and retrofitting some of the portable classrooms that have been on the site.

“This (separate) configuration is the correct way to go,” board member Gene Stamm said. “Each school has its own principal, secretaries and custodians. In the end this will result in significant savings. We won’t have to look for another junior high for quite some time.”

Superintendent RoseMary Parga Duran said all four of Merced’s middle schools will surrender their sixth-graders to the elementary level for the start of the 2015-2016 school year. She said middle schools cost twice as much as an elementary school, and the district isn’t in a position now to build a new junior high.

“It’s an exciting endeavor,” Duran said. “I’m looking forward to it. Now we have almost 900 students at the middle schools. This will set us up for the future.”

In his dissenting vote, Cox said he didn’t believe a lot of research went into defining the options. He said it was hard for him justifying hiring a whole new set of administrators for an elementary school on the combined campus.

“The buck needs to stop with someone,” Cox said. “You can’t have two heads, it just won’t work.”

Cox said he will support the board’s decision and is looking forward to getting the Rivera project done. Having an elementary school in the Fahrens Park area will meet the needs of an area that has been underserved for years, he added.

Ken Testa, the district’s facilities director, explained that a central administration building will be remodeled in the spring. It will have two lobbies and offices for the administrative staffs, and each campus will be able to function independently.

Testa said the Rivera site has 221/2acres. The completed campus will have staggered starting and ending times. The schools will share nursing services and cafeteria facilities.

Duran said the district’s goal is to have four middle schools and 14 elementary schools, each with about 600 students. Restructuring the grade level split will alleviate crowding at the middle school level.

Duran said both schools will continue to be named Rivera School.

Building of the Rivera elementary campus will exhaust Measure S bond funds that were approved by voters 11 years ago. Bond supporters pledged that an elementary school campus would be built in the Fahrens Park area.

This story was originally published November 13, 2014 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Elementary, middle schools to be separate at Rivera site."