Fred T. Korematsu Elementary School

Location	3100 Loyola Drive
Principal	Mary Ponce
Phone	(530) 757-5358
Website	PTO Site
District	one of the Schools in the DJUSD

The full name of this school is "Fred T. Korematsu Elementary School at Mace Ranch". The length of the name is the result of a compromise between school board members who wanted to name it based on a local figure or geographical feature and members who wanted to name it after Fred T. Korematsu who was a civil rights leader. This article describes the decisions of the board.

The construction of the school has been controversial since before it was built. Residents of Mace Ranch were told that an elementary school would be built in the early 1990s but the school district did not purchase the land until 1995, there was no further funding until 2000 (voters rejected a $55 million school construction bond in 1997), and construction did not begin until 2005. During a 2002 school board meeting, members considered downsizing the school or possibly not building it at all.¹

Originally set to open in fall 2005, the opening was pushed back to fall 2006 due to budget cuts.² Soon after opening plans were laid out for Korematsu to slowly to a K-3, one grade level per year, the district had a sudden cut back in funding due to under-enrollment of elementary students which resulted in the closure of Valley Oak Elementary School in June 2008 and the Korematsu opening was accelerated to open as a full K-6 in the fall of 2008.

The 2006/2007 school year included only kindergarten and first grade, with second grade to be added for the 2007/2008 school year.

On March 20, 2007, the Board of Education voted 3-2 in favor of a resolution that would open Korematsu as a K-6 school in the Fall of 2008.

Basketball and Tetherball Older kids playground Under Construction

Comments:

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• We have a beautiful K-6 elementary school in a part of town where enrollment is not declining and we're not opening it! The problem is overcapacity in other parts of town. That's not likely to change since East (and South) Davis are the only parts of town that are remotely affordable for a family with young kids. It's time to bite the bullet and do some elementary school consolidation in the parts of town where enrollment is declining. — DianeK
  

2008-08-13 22:29:51   I highly recommend walking around or lying down with your eyes closed in the tether ball courts while the wind is blowing. Listen closely to the phasing of the chains striking the poles... —watson

2009-04-13 18:42:25   pretty nice teachers and the school is good looking but lack of money makes things hard, there is also no school spirit, but some teachers dont exactly think that fun is a good thing, mr kelleher, mrs olmstead, mr carlson, mrs kesser,and mr miille are extremely nice I reccomend them highly —Churro615