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The Roseville City School District welcomed almost 500 students to campus Thursday morning as it celebrated the opening of its newest campus, Winding Creek Elementary.
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“To our students, we have worked tirelessly for the last five years to ensure that this school campus is designed with you in mind so that you guys can achieve your full potential,” said Roseville City School District Superintendent Derk Garcia during a speech.
The grand opening featured a red-carpet welcome, performances by the West Park High School’s band and cheer team and speeches by Garcia and other officials before a ribbon cutting.
Winding Creek, the district’s 22nd school, was built to accommodate the growing population in the west Roseville area. At full capacity, it will serve up to 650 students from transitional kindergarten to the fifth grade.
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Designed and built by HMC Architects and builder Balfour Beatty, the school represents a collaboration between the Roseville City School District, the city of Roseville and the real estate development company Anthem.
It received funding through a school mitigation agreement, a contract to offset the impact a new housing development will have on local school capacity.
According to Garcia, all other schools in the city’s west side are full.
“Opening a new school that can house 650 students really provides an opportunity, not only for this neighborhood, but it also alleviates some of the schools that are at their capacity on the west end,” he said.
Susana Orlando, who dropped her third grade son off at Winding Creek Elementary, spoke to this need.
“There’s so many kids moving in around here, so I think it’s definitely needed,” she said. “We’re excited to be a part of it.”
Karine Balbierz, who dropped her second grade daughter off at school, shared Orlando’s excitement.
“We live just around the corner, so it’s really cool to see the school go from dirt to school,” she said. “It’s a brand new, fresh start.”
Garcia cited school enrollment declines in the state. Public K-12 enrollment dropped by 1.3%, or nearly 75,000 students, this past year, according to the California Department of Education. As a result, Garcia said, many districts are considering school consolidation.
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Garcia said this statewide trend makes the opening of Winding Creek even more significant. It marks the fourth school he has had the opportunity to open in his 13 years as superintendent.
“It’s very rare that we get to open a school,” he said, “and it’s more and more exciting every single time we get a chance to do it.”
Principal Susanna Ramirez described the vision of Winding Creek as “to create a welcoming school where every child is known, valued and inspired to learn.”
“Our priority is to ensure every student at Winding Creek receives the best education that we can give them,” said Roseville City School District school board President Cami Walker. “We want them to be happy, healthy, kind and leave our school to go out into our community to be the best they can.”
Garcia said what makes Winding Creek special are the people who work there. Ramirez, he said, has done a “remarkable job of hiring a really talented group of educators.” He described the staff as deeply caring, committed and competent.
The campus sits on six and a half acres, a smaller site than other schools in the district. To compensate for space constraints, the site features the first multi-story classroom building in the school district.
The school also features a separate transitional kindergarten and kindergarten wing, a library, an administrative office and two playgrounds. Its multipurpose room includes a cafeteria, stage and music room. Each classroom has an indoor and outdoor learning space.
“The concepts are to maximize outdoor learning environments, make flexible learning areas across the campus and give teachers a new, cutting-edge facility to lead future generations,” said Joe Hucik, general contractor for Balfour Beatty.
Artist Skye Walker painted a mural featuring the school mascot — a dragonfly — on the exterior of one building. A shared-use, adjoining park is set to be built, which will provide students with supervised access to the space during the school day.
“It’s a very unique opportunity to be able to start a school from the ground up and build the foundation of our culture,” said Ramirez. “Seeing our students starting their first day of school and the excitement and the joy in their eyes, and the smiles on their faces — it has been really a dream come true.”
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