On Friday, November 4, 2016, the Oxnard School District (District) will hold a community reception to celebrate progress made and the upcoming construction of the new Elm Elementary School. The reception will be held from 10am-11:30am at Elm Elementary School, 450 E. Elm Street, Oxnard.  All members of the community and media representatives are invited to attend the reception.

After extensive planning and design, and active support from the community, the District is gearing up for the construction of the New Elm Elementary School, expected to commence in early 2017. Elm Elementary School currently serves approximately 702 students in grades K-5 and was first constructed in 1948.  The existing school will remain in operation during the construction of the new Elm Elementary School.

The new campus has been designed to house 600 students per State classroom loading standards in 25 classrooms.  Classrooms have been designed to support 21^st century 360-degree learning environments with wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling whiteboards allowing any surface to be written upon to help spark creativity and critical thinking, and multiple high definition monitors allowing educational content to be wirelessly broadcasted and shared instantly from handheld computing devices.  Additionally, the new campus will contain specified support facilities, administration areas, student information center (library), food service, multipurpose room, restrooms, and playfields for school and community use.

Financing for the new school has been made possible through local support of Measure “R”.  Approved by voters in November 2012, Measure “R” is a $90 million General Obligation (G.O.) Bond authorization to replace portable classrooms, relieve student overcrowding by building and equipping new classrooms and educational facilities, and repairing and equipping existing classrooms and educational facilities throughout the District.  The District has issued all of the Measure “R” bond authorization and is well underway with its Facilities Implementation Program, having already completed the new Harrington Elementary school, begun construction of the new Lemonwood K-8 school, and nearing State approval on the grade 6-8 addition to Marshall elementary school.  Measure “R” will also help leverage the required matching funds in order for the District to access $69 million in State matching grants for new construction.

Superintendent Dr. Cesar Morales notes: “This new Elm Elementary School marks the third new school made possible due to local support for Measure “R”.  Our ability to replace this aging 68-year-old school with a completely new facility, along with new library and multipurpose facilities will greatly expand the educational space to students and staff at Elm.   I look forward to the upcoming construction ahead of us”.

The Oxnard School District currently educates approximately 16,900 students in kindergarten through eighth grade at twenty-one schools.

For a copy of this press release, please click here: Elm Community Reception Press Release

Please click on the following links to obtain more information regarding upcoming New Norma Harrington Elementary School Celebrations:

New Norma Harrington Elementary School Grand Opening Block Party – January 16th 11am – 1pm

New Norma Harrington Elementary School Ribbon Cutting/Media Day – January 21st 10am -12pm

Press Release

Media Advisory for January 21st Event

The Oxnard School District (District) proudly announces the opening of the New Norma Harrington Elementary School!

The District will hold the following two events celebrating the grand opening of the new school to be held on the new campus, located at 451 E. Olive Street, Oxnard:

• Saturday, January 16, 2016 11am–1pm – New Norma Harrington Elementary School Grand Opening Block Party
• Thursday, January 21, 2016 10am-12pm – New Norma Harrington Elementary School Ribbon Cutting/Media Day

The school was originally built in 1955 on an 8.3 acre site.  Careful planning has enabled the construction of an entirely new school on the existing play fields that will be followed by demolition of the older buildings. The new school includes 23 general purpose classrooms, 4 kindergarten classrooms, and 1 Resource Specialist Program (RSP) room.   Classrooms are equipped with 21^st century features including flexible modern furnishings, floor to ceiling sliding marker boards, and TV monitors for classroom instructional use.   The new campus also includes a state-of-the-art piano keyboarding lab for music education as well as a Maker’s Room for hands on creative activities or project based learning.  Modern support facilities include administration areas, a library and student information center, a cafeteria and multipurpose room, physical education spaces, and restrooms.  Additionally, the District plans to develop an Early Childhood Development Center that will reutilize, reconfigure, and modernize a portion of an existing building on the campus.

Financing for the new school has been made possible through local support of Measure “R”.  Approved by voters in November 2012, Measure “R” is a $90 million General Obligation (G.O.) Bond authorization to replace portable classrooms, relieve student overcrowding by building and equipping new classrooms and educational facilities and repairing and equipping existing classrooms and educational facilities throughout the District.  The District has issued all of the Measure “R” bond authorization and is well underway with its Facilities Implementation Program.  Measure “R” will also help leverage the required matching funds in order for the District to access State matching grants for new construction.  The District is currently eligible for up to $69 million in State matching grants for new construction. 

Superintendent Dr. Cesar Morales notes: “I want to thank our community and voters for their support and confidence in our local schools.  This school has been made possible by local support for Measure “R”.  The new Norma Harrington Elementary School will serve as our model school for 21^st century learning.  We look forward to the completion of additional new schools to continue our efforts to improve the educational program and help reduce overcrowding”. 

The Oxnard School District currently educates approximately 16,900 students in kindergarten through eighth grade at twenty one schools.

The Oxnard School District is issuing a Request for Qualifications to prequalify Lease-Leaseback pre-construction and construction services pursuant to Education Code Section 17406, et seq. for the District’s Facilities Implementation Program. In June 2013, the Oxnard School District and its Board of Trustees created a pool of prequalified firms to provide LLB services related to the District’s Program. The District is seeking to renew and replenish the pool of firms available to provide LLB preconstruction and construction services.

To view the Request For Qualifications in its entirety, please visit our RFQs/RFPs page OR Planwell’s Public Planroom. To access the document through Planwell, click on PLANROOM.

Submittals of Qualifications are due no later than Friday, May 29, 2015 at 12:00 pm to Caldwell Flores Winters, Inc., 1901 South Victoria Avenue, Suite 106, Oxnard, CA 93035.

At their April 17, 2013 Board Meeting, the Oxnard School District Board of Trustees received a report from Mrs. Catherine Kawaguchi, the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, and Caldwell Flores Winters, Inc., its financial and facilities consultants, announcing the Opening of Academies in the Oxnard School District. The Educational Academies are a part of the overall grade reconfiguration that the Board of Trustees is in the process of implementing for the fall of 2014. The Academies will open at three schools, Frank, Fremont and Haydock. These schools will open as grade 6-8 middle schools in the beginning of the 2014-15 school year.

The report announced that Frank Middle School, located on North Juanita Ave. in the Colonia area, will be a Science & Engineering Academy focusing on robotics and marine sciences.

Fremont Middle School, located on North M Street, will be an Environmental Science and Design Academy. The focus at Fremont will be technology, three dimensional (3-D) design and environmental sciences.

Haydock Middle School, located on Hill Street south of Wooley Road, which already has an extensive music program, will be reopened as a Visual and Performing Arts Academy by adding a robust acting and drama curriculum.

Mrs. Kawaguchi explained that all three middle schools will continue to offer the core curriculum but will integrate the Academy program into that curriculum. The schools will also offer additional special classes and electives that focus on the educational program offered by the Academy.

After visiting a number of existing Academy programs, the District engaged in an extensive 90 day outreach to Principals, staff and the community for the purpose of selecting the Academies. Over the course of the next 15 months, the District will be developing the detailed curriculum, instruction and implementation plan for opening the Academies in the fall of 2014. The development of the curriculum will be coordinated and integrated with the deployment of 1:1 devices at certain schools throughout the District.

Jeff Chancer, the District’s Superintendent, explained, “This is an exciting time for the Oxnard School District. We have excellent leadership, a focused educational vision and a facilities plan that is going to fundamentally improve the way we educate our children.”

Oxnard School District serves approximately 16,500 kindergarten through eighth grade students at twenty (20) schools throughout the City of Oxnard. The District retained Caldwell Flores Winters, Inc., an education, financial and facilities consultant, in October 2012 to assist with implementing its vision and transforming its deteriorating facilities into state of the art learning facilities. The firm presented the District with a plan in January of 2013 that calls for restructuring of all grade configurations throughout the District, extended day kindergarten at all K-5 and K-8 schools, reconstruction of three school sites, Lemonwood, Elm and Harrington, in phase one, and the acquisition of a new elementary school site and a new middle school site.

Oxnard School District Leverages $9 million in State Grants