The Pierce Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees last week agreed to seek first round state funding this April to build two new permanent structures at Arbuckle Elementary School to educate their youngest students.
The site selection followed months of stakeholder meetings, which began last fall, said PJUSD Superintendent Carol Geyer.
“In September 2021, we came to the board with this idea that we need to add transitional kindergarten to our campus because it is a requirement,” Geyer said.
The board selected one of five proposed site plans at its regular Feb. 17 meeting, which could allow the district to build two new buildings, which would provide four additional classrooms, without moving the fifth grade to the Junior High – a proposal that was immensely unpopular with board members and parents.
The Full-Day Kindergarten Facilities Grant Program was expanded by the state last year to include an additional $490 million to school districts as one-time grants to build classrooms to provide preschool, transitional kindergarten, and full-day kindergarten.
Currently, transitional kindergarten serves about 100,000 children in California, primarily those who turn 5 between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2. The expanded TK program, detailed in Senate Bill 130, which was signed in the education trailer bill by Gov. Gavin Newsom in July, will be phased in over the next five years, until it includes all the state’s 4-year-olds by the 2025-26 school year.
Geyer said accommodating new students on an already-cramped campus would impact the school even further, which is why the California Department of Education suggested the district consider moving the fifth grade to Johnson Junior High. The district also considered building new classrooms near the swimming pool by the high school, utilizing the existing tennis court area, moving portables to the elementary school parking lot and building the new classrooms in their spot, or, preferably, purchasing the property adjacent to the elementary school to accommodate the portable classrooms, as state funding allows for property acquisition with just a 25 percent match.
“I originally had hoped that we could acquire a site and move the portables to a new site so we did not have the load issue at the elementary school,” said PJUSD Trustee George Green. “That is something I still want to work on, and I will confess to the board that without authorization, I have been looking for sites and speaking to folks in the community. I have no solution at this point. I’m still hoping to move in that direction and at least have something to present (in the future).
Without another viable solution, the school board ultimately decided, pending state approval, to build two classrooms by the outdoor play area, and move the eight portable classrooms from the east side of the campus to the west side of the campus along 9th Street. The district also plans to reconfigure the walking track path.
“We know that we can squeeze people in with some bumping and moving,” Geyer said.
The district’s consultants will spend the next month analyzing the costs to prepare a competitive grant application, which is due by April 30.
“That is for the first round,” PJUSD facilities manager George Parker said.
While school officials said the district is currently seeing a slight decline in enrollment, there may be a need in the future for the district to build a campus to accommodate grades four through six, which would likely require the community to authorize another bond.
Meanwhile, the selected reconfiguration of the Arbuckle Elementary School campus to accommodate the new buildings for transitional kindergarten, and the impact it will have on campus crowding, will require approval from the California Department of Education, officials said.
District officials expect to hear from the state in August or early fall how the PJUSD ranked in terms of points and if the grant is approved.
Top ranked projects will be awarded first, Parker said, although the district’s application for the money would remain on the state’s list until subsequent rounds of funding are awarded. ■