Chico’s Loma Vista School Begins Another Chapter in a Brand-New Building

When the children and staff at the Loma Vista School in Chico, CA returned March 25 from spring break, they entered a very special, brand-new school. Loma Vista, which is part of the Chico Unified School District, houses eight preschool special day classrooms, and one blended transitional kindergarten and collaborates with Innovative Preschool, a private non-profit preschool, at the same location. The new school building on Manzanita Avenue was built from the ground up and is located right behind the Marigold Street site it had occupied since 1989. The old building is slated for demolishment, and the plan is to fill the space with trees and additional parking spaces. “By next year, all phases of construction should be complete,” Loma Vista School Principal Aaron Sauberan says.

This $16 million project has taken approximately three years to complete. In 2016, Chico Unified School Bond Measure K arguing “Every student in our local public schools should have the opportunity to learn in safe, up-to-date, quality classrooms and school facilities” was voted in. Measure K funds promise safe schools by making critical structural repairs and upgrades, modernizing and constructing new classrooms and school facilities, improving student access to technology and improving access for students with disabilities.

The new Loma Vista school was “designed specifically with the students in mind,” Sauberan explains. “The project designers wanted to make sure they met the needs of the preschoolers.” He adds that a few of the designers that worked on this project were themselves parents of children with special needs.

The building is large, with bright colors and huge windows that let in lots of natural light. There is also a common area, and the classrooms have sound buffers incorporated into the ceiling. There is an accessible playground made up of gross motor and sensory play equipment. The new building includes rooms specifically for assessments and therapy rooms for occupational and speech therapy. Even the layout of the staff and administrative offices allows for better collaboration. “There was intention behind how it was designed,” Sauberan says.

The staff prepared the children for the move during the last few weeks at the old site by “helping them to make a connection in age-appropriate ways,” says Sauberan. Since the construction site had been largely visible to the children if only from afar, construction toys were incorporated into the outdoor play area to engage them. Interns from the Early Education Program at CSU Chico assisted the staff by working with the children using social stories and daily check-ins to help smooth the transition.

At the start of the 2019-2020 school year, there will be an adult classroom integrated into the building. The new school will be equipped with a kitchen and a laundry room which will be utilized by this adult class as they learn life and job skills as part of their program.

Sauberan and Innovative Preschool Director Cate Szczepanski both say that the staff has been excited about the move, although according to Szczepanski, “The hardest part has been sifting through 30 years of memories.” The school community was recently able to commemorate the move with a “FUNdraiser,” where they celebrated memories of the old building while embracing a new beginning for their school.

The staff remains dedicated to serving the special needs community in the best way possible, as they have for over two decades. “This school has touched a lot of people over the years,” Szczepanski states, adding that the staff is now teaching students who are the children of several previous students. Sauberan, who has worked at the school since 2008, said that he is “looking forward to a new chapter with Loma Vista.”