Central Unified Breaks Ground For Education | ABC30 Fresno

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By ABC30

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Fresno, CA Administrators say they are already getting calls from parents hoping their children can enroll in the new school that will be located at the corner of Shaw and Bryan. They say a new middle school is something that will help the entire community.

Turning over the soil on this plot of barren land will make way for a new comprehensive middle school in Central Unified. Assistant Superintendent Mike Berg says current middle schools El Capitan and Rio Vista are simply running out of room.

"We've reached capacity, we're slightly beyond capacity at both and we are projecting growth for the district between 3 to 500 students per year for the next 10 years," said Berg.

New home construction continues across northwest and west central Fresno, district administrators say that's one of the reasons more students are flocking here.

"The housing market the housing prices we have good entry level communities here, we have multi family here."

Administrators say they are not sure which schools will feed into the new middle school. But Harvest Elementary is just around the corner from the new site. Burg says they will make those decisions once they start creating new school boundaries. Which will begin in 2010, cost estimates for the new facility are close to $27-million dollars. The campus will include 32 new classrooms, state of the art science and technology-a food court and a cafeteria that doubles as a theater.

"Additional sound system lighting system it's going to have a terraced floor like a theater," said Berg.

All paid for by local residents-- who in 2008 passed a $152-million dollar bond measure. Berg says that money will come back to the area. He said, "We're keeping people working with the tax dollars so it is a win, win for the community."

Central Unified is currently accepting suggestions from the community for the name of the Measure B-funded middle school that is scheduled to open at the Koligian Education Complex in 2011. You have until November 13th to get your suggestions in.

Click the link to submit your suggestions:
http://www.centralunified.org/home.aspx