Schools
Santa Cruz School District Will Reopen Natural Bridges Elementary School
In response to growing student population, the school will be reopened and the country's seventh best high school, Pacific Collegiate, will be evicted.
Natural Bridges Elementary School, which has been closed since 2004, will reopen in 2015, the Santa Cruz City School Board announced Thursday.
This will displace Pacific Collegiate School, the 500-student college preparatory school by U.S. News and World Report and fourth best in the state by the California Department of Education.
Officials at that school have been looking for a new location and have two years to find one.
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The school district will spend $1 million on building expenses for a school that has been functioning for 14 years as a high school.
PCS has been paying $340,000 a year to lease the school. The district will also spend $600,000 to hire a principal, librarian and support staff, according to a release from Superintendant Gary Bloom.
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The district reported that enrollment lost 1,264 students from 1995-2005, but has been growing every year since 2006. It switched sixth graders over to Branciforte and Mission Hill middle schools and in 2005 put four specialized small schools into the former Branciforte Elementary building.
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