The Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) Board of Education Thursday unanimously approved design guidelines and boundaries for the soon-to-be built Ofelia Valdez-Yeager Eastside Elementary School, one of the final steps before construction can begin.
“The goals and priorities, again, are focused on, first and foremost, safety and security of students and staff, creating a magical learning environment and then creating a strong connection to the community,” Assistant Superintendent Orin Williams said at the May 21 meeting.
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The district is required to submit the guidelines, called education specifications, to the state for final approval before construction on the Eastside-based school can start this summer.
Once the district receives state approval, Williams said the developers would use the guidelines to understand the district’s design expectations, from playground and classroom environments down to the type of lighting that should be used.
The specifications also outline the design for the school’s more “unique spaces,” like the science and music rooms. In addition to design guidelines, the document also included an educational vision, to help both developers and administrators better understand how those spaces, in particular, would be used on a daily basis.
Following the approval of the design guidelines, the board also set the attendance boundary for the Eastside school.
Although eight options were presented to the board, one option stood above the rest for residents. For that proposal, the boundaries were University Avenue to the north, the 91 Freeway to the west, Dwight/Douglass avenues to the east and cutting through the Victoria Club to the south.
“It seemed to be the most inclusive and make the most common sense to use that one,” Rita Ayala, an Eastside resident told the board. “The other ones, none of them eliminated crossing University [Avenue] and 14th Street, which is a big concern to us as parents.”
Once the school opens in the fall of 2028, nearly 800 of the district’s elementary students living within the proposed boundary — currently divided between seven other elementary schools — would transfer to the newly-built school.
Several of those elementary schools, like Alcott Elementary and Pachappa Elementary, would see their student population drop by the hundreds once the new Eastside school opens.
Henry W. Longfellow Elementary School and Emerson Elementary School families, who live close enough to the new school’s boundary, will also be given priority if they choose to transfer their child to the new school.
“I know that we made these recommendations from the community and staff, and I think they’re wise ones in terms of safety for students,” Trustee Brent Lee said. “But in the event that there’s a family that … they want to be at a new school and there’s space, in my preference, to get those students in the community priority before we open it up to everybody else.”
The Board of Education is set to select a developer for the project at the June 4 meeting, with construction set to begin this summer.
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