Community school is coming to North Central San Mateo

“We’re full steam ahead,” Superintendent Diego Ochoa said.

The district will relocate its Spanish immersion program from the current Fiesta Gardens campus on the south end of the city to the North Central neighborhood, an area with a large Latino community. College Park would, inversely, move about 2.5 miles south to the current Fiesta Gardens International School site south of State Route 92. 

In addition to a new location, Fiesta Gardens will be upgraded, equipping the site with enough space to serve middle school grade levels as well, Christian Rubalcaba, director of school leadership, said. The district has plans to introduce these grade levels over the course of two years. 

“I think what’s important to understand is the multitiered dynamic here,” Rubalcaba said. “You can’t really talk about one thing without the other.” 

The overall school improvement project consists of the construction of the gymnasium, a classroom building with six new classrooms, a STEM lab, solar walkways, hardtop patios and play areas, and a new parking lot. 

Rubalcaba is part of a team leading efforts to thoroughly engage the community and stakeholders in these two schools to contribute to the decision-making process. Over the last two years, many town halls and community meetings have been held to establish as much transparency to the process as possible, he said.

“Nothing significant has shifted in terms of the actual planning,” Rubalcaba said. “It’s been mostly collecting a lot of amazing ideas that they’ve had that we are actively planning to include, so it’s actually additional pieces.” 

Areas of improvement brought up during community stakeholder meetings included bolstering the social-emotional supports on campus, enhancements to academic support programs and opportunities for parent involvement. 

While there has been a general consensus of support for this project, Rubalcaba said the district will continue to be open to any concerns raised going forward, even after the swap has occurred. 

“This is an ongoing input project that we’re currently engaged in,” he said. “We hope to be able to continue that, because needs might shift and we’re going to be as responsive as possible to address those needs as we confront them,” 

The most fulfilling piece, Rubalcaba said, was the district’s intention to hear the opinions of the students who will be affected by this location swap. He said that they have “systematically” included student voices throughout this process.

“We have a plan and you’re helping build it,” Rubalcaba said. “My job was to gather their voice and have them see themselves and their voices reflected in the planning. To be able to include the student voice is incredible.” 

The move reflects a longtime desire to support the North Central community with a school that is closer to home rather than having to bus students to other schools. 

College Park became a Mandarin immersion school in the early 2000s when Turnbull Learning Academy, a neighborhood school, was reconsidered after it entered program improvement. It was renamed College Park and, with the program change, students in the North Central neighborhood were assigned to a variety of other schools in the district. 

The plan, as long as construction goes according to schedule, is for the actual swapping of the two schools to take place over 60 days during the summer prior to the August 2025 start of the school year. Ochoa said he expects the transition to be smooth.

“It’ll be a very unique and one-of-a-kind ballet that we will perform but we have some really good, very experienced people in charge of that process,” Ochoa said. “We have every intention that it will be a good experience.”