Katherine Johnson New Campus

Katherine Johnson Middle School welcomed its campus in a way that can only be described as, “out of this world!”

On Dec. 19, families, staff and community members gathered at the school’s new campus location to launch a rocket in honor of new beginnings, and the school’s namesake.

Families and community members explored the new campus, including their students’ new classroom locations, administrative office and library after the ceremony. Each student was given an autobiography of Katherine Johnson as a commemorative keepsake of their campus grand opening. 

Read an event recap.

The construction of the new Katherine Johnson Middle School has seen substantial advancements this month, with a focus on progressing the grading activities for the field area adjacent to the nature trail. As a result, the Creekside nature trail access from Lacy Lane will need to be temporarily closed starting Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, through Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. We anticipate reopening the nature trail access on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.

If you have any concerns regarding construction, please contact the Facilities,
Construction & Modernization office at (916) 971-5780 or construction@sanjuan.edu. 

The countdown to completion continues for Katherine Johnson Middle School’s new campus at 2641 Kent Drive.

Just over two miles away from the Encina High School/Katherine Johnson campus, the new Katherine Johnson campus now features a stunning, nearly-complete administrative office building. The classroom wings are also a step closer to completion with new carpets and painted walls. The restrooms in each wing have been equipped with sinks, toilets and partitions.

The progress at Katherine Johnson’s new campus is visible from the street to any passersby. As construction continues, we are looking forward to starting school at the new campus on Jan. 7, 2025.

Katherine Johnson Move Webpage

Katherine Johnson new campus staff tour
Katherine Johnson staff suited up with safety glasses, hard hats and reflective vests to tour the new campus on May 30! Construction partners led tours through the classroom wings, elective lab spaces, administrative building and multipurpose room. Exciting changes are shaping up at Katherine Johnson!

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We're moving in January 2025
Mark your calendars! Katherine Johnson Middle School will move into its brand-new campus in January 2025! This brand-new campus, located at 2641 Kent Drive, will be exclusively our own, featuring brand new facilities including:

• Makerspace lab
• Multipurpose room
• Library and classrooms
• Spacious outdoor areas and playfields

If you have any questions related to the move, please email kjmsmove@sanjuan.edu. 

KJMS Move Webpage

Upcoming Nature Trail Closure

The construction of the new Katherine Johnson Middle School has seen substantial advancements this month, with a focus on progressing the storm drain work for the site in the next few weeks. As a result, the Creekside nature trail access from Lacy Lane will need to be temporarily closed starting this Friday, April 19, 2024, through Tuesday, April 30, 2024. We anticipate reopening the nature trail access on Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

The opening of Katherine Johnson Middle School’s new campus at the former Creekside location has been delayed. The facilities team anticipates the completion of the project to now be December 2024, with a move-in date of January 2025 after next year’s winter break.

Several factors have led to this delay, including significant weather-related days in the winter of 2022 that created saturated soil conditions, a re-bid of the electrical scope of work that exceeded budget estimates, a complete environmental impact report process and soil conditions related to toxic substance remediation. Additionally, there is uncertainty about the level of weather impacts that we will experience this upcoming winter. 

Additional updates on the project timeline will be provided as they become available.

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Katherine Johnson Middle School students and staff buzzed with anticipation on Dec. 19 to autograph a wall that will soon be placed on their school’s new campus location on Kent Drive. This milestone represents the excitement felt by the Katherine Johnson community about their own new campus coming to life.

The signing wall was built by Encina Preparatory High School’s construction Career Technical Education students, and will be installed in Katherine Johnson’s new multipurpose room after the wall signing has been completed.
 

The new Katherine Johnson Middle School campus has scheduled upcoming concrete pours that will require early morning pours to meet concrete availability constraints along with code requirements on concrete placement and finish. This will ensure the project stays on schedule.

Oct. 30 - Concrete pour starting at 5 a.m. for the classroom / library Building D slab on grade.

Nov. 14 - Concrete pour starting at 5 a.m. for the multi-purpose Building M slab on grade (partial).

Nov. 16 - Concrete pour starting at 5 a.m. for the multi-purpose Building M slab on grade (final).

Construction crews will be on site one hour prior on those dates to be ready for the concrete trucks to start pouring at 5 a.m.

If you have any concerns regarding construction, please contact the Facilities, Construction and Modernization office at (916) 971-5780 or construction@sanjuan.edu.

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Katherine Johnson Middle School’s new campus construction is beginning to peer above the ground. Keep reading below for October’s construction update.

The parking lot area has made significant progress, with the bio-retention walls nearly complete, and the completion of curb & gutter at the parking lot. Take a look at how it’s coming together:

 

October was a big month for the construction of this campus. Slabs have been poured at Buildings A, B and C, as well as foundations and stem walls at Building M.

 

At the end of September, a fourth submittal of the Preliminary Environmental Assessment Report (PEA) dated June 6, 2023 (revised Sept. 20, 2023) with Appendix A was submitted to the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) for review and comment. A Response to Comments summary corresponding to the DTSC PEA Comment Letter is now available.

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After months of excavating and planning, the foundations of Katherine Johnson are beginning to take shape! Take a look below for updates.

Significant progress is being made in Building A, which now has stem walls in place. Meanwhile, structural steel canopy support columns have been placed at Buildings B and C, with fabrication of Building C walls well underway. Edge form and anchor bolt layout and install continues in Building D. At Building M, footing excavation has begun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additionally, the parking lot is taking shape with ongoing curb installations, and storm drain filter and manhole installation wrapped up in the southeast quadrant of the site at Kent Drive.

 

A third submittal of the Preliminary Environmental Assessment Report dated June 6, 2023 (revised Aug. 17, 2023) was submitted to Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) for review and comment. DTSC provided their comments on the PEA Comment Letter, dated June 27, 2023. A Response to Comments summary corresponding to the DTSC PEA Comment Letter is now available.

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Katherine Johnson Middle School’s new campus grounds will be expecting after-hours construction work starting Wednesday, Aug. 16 until early October. After-hours construction work includes time windows after 8 p.m. and before 7 a.m.

Construction work during these times include foundation work and concrete pours. Due to high temperatures, early morning hours have been designated for construction workers to complete these tasks.

Construction times will adhere with the Sacramento County noise ordinance. The following dates are scheduled for after-hours construction work:

• Aug. 16 - 2 - 3 a.m.
• Aug. 24 - early morning
• Sept. 27 - early morning
• Sept. 28 - early morning
• Early October dates to be determined

If you have any concerns regarding construction, please contact the Facilities, Construction & Modernization office at (916) 971-5780 or construction@sanjuan.edu.

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Katherine Johnson Middle School's brand-new campus is now showing above-ground progress, with classroom building foundations now set in motion. Preparations are currently being made for the foundations of the administration and science buildings. Katherine Johnson’s new campus is projected to be completed by Fall 2024.

Read more about this year's Summer Construction Roundup.

A second submittal of the Preliminary Environmental Assessment (PEA) report dated June 6, 2023, was submitted to the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) for review and comment. The DTSC provided their comments on the PEA Comment Letter dated June 27, 2023. There will be another PEA report submitted to the DTSC responding to their comment letter, and is anticipated to be submitted in July 2023.

The Draft Preliminary Environmental Assessment report for the proposed new Katherine Johnson Middle School Project at 2641 Kent Dr, Sacramento, CA 95821 is now available, as well as an Appendices. There will be a public hearing during the Board of Education meeting on April 25 where the PEA and Appendices will be discussed. Please direct any comments to Nicholas Arps. 

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Katherine Johnson Middle School staff, students and community members eagerly gathered the morning of April 14 to break ground at the future campus location. The active site bustled with construction vehicles as the community gathered to celebrate new beginnings for the middle school community.  

“Our staff and students are excited to be able to call this new campus their own and to establish Katherine Johnson Middle School’s own unique identity and campus culture,” said Principal Damon Smith.

Read more about Katherine Johnson Middle School’s groundbreaking ceremony at www.sanjuan.edu/kjmsgroundbreaking.

Due to additional storms expected over the next week and continued wet conditions in the region,  the Katherine Johnson Middle School new campus groundbreaking ceremony has been rescheduled to Friday, April 14 at 9:30 a.m.

The groundbreaking will celebrate the kick-off of construction and those in attendance will have an opportunity to take a photo with a hard hat and shovel and view the architect's renderings of the future campus.

Please RSVP for the event on April 14 by visiting www.sanjuan.edu/KJgroundbreaking.

A workshop was held for the Environmental Impact Report on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 4 p.m at the district office board room (3738 Walnut Ave. in Carmichael). Please visit www.sanjuan.edu/boardmeetings for the board workshop agenda.

EIR Formal Scoping MeetingAn Environmental Impact Report (EIR) formal scoping meeting was held on June 30 at 6 p.m. in the multipurpose room at Creekside Adult School (2641 Kent Dr., Sacramento). Community members were provided an opportunity to see another overview of the proposed project, receive an explanation of the anticipated CEQA process and provide input on which environmental issues should be covered in the project’s forthcoming EIR.

Community Workshop

A community workshop was held on June 16 at 6 p.m. in the multipurpose room at Creekside Adult School (2641 Kent Dr., Sacramento). Information was shared about the process the project staff will use to design and build the potential new campus. The workshop also provided community members an opportunity to share feedback on the communication process throughout the project.

Katherine Johnson Middle school is currently co-located on the campus of Encina Preparatory High School at 1400 Bell Street. 

Katherine Johnson Middle School began operations in the 2021-2022 school year for students in grades 6 through 8. Prior to that time, Encina Preparatory High School served grades 6 through 12. 

Katherine Johnson's current attendance boundary reaches from Auburn Blvd. to the north, Ethan Way to the west, the American River to the south and Watt Ave to the east. (The north east corner of the boundary travels along Morse Ave to El Camino and then over to Watt Ave.) Students in this area may also have the option to attend Sierra Oaks K-8 or Thomas Edison Dual Language Institute (K-8) if they live in those schools' attendance areas or open enroll.

As part of the process to provide additional space for middle school students, the boundaries of middle schools will be reviewed and attendance areas may be adjusted. Please check back for additional information about the boundary adjustment process.

The main driver is the input from the community on the separation of middle school grades  from Encina High School, and the projected increase of student populations in the west region is a secondary factor in the relocation decision.

Yes, the San Juan Unified project team rebenched using 2021-22 student enrollment data. 

No,  it would not achieve the goal of creating a separate middle school, or be a sustainable way to meet the forecasted capacity demands. Many other middle school sites in the west region are already nearing capacity. 

Both middle schools in the west region will be built using bond, developer fees and state matching funds. 

Alternative sites were considered for the potential Katherine Johnson Middle School project, but there are very few alternative sites owned by the district that could accommodate the proposed facilities and meet the project objectives. A more detailed description of alternative sites is included in the Environmental Impact Report (EIR). 

No, all of our existing sites in the west region are at or near capacity.

There are no specific state regulations governing site size. 

There are 9.5 acres with 7.5 acres of buildable space.

All middle schools in San Juan Unified feature facilities for physical education and recreation. Katherine Johnson's new home will include field space and playing fields. 

California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) study documents are being prepared by outside experts. The documents are expected to be available for public review by August 2022. The district’s project team will hold a meeting to discuss the CEQA/Environmental Impact Report process on June 30 at 6 p.m., at the Creekside site.  

Traffic flow around schools is always a concern. It has been a number of years since the Creekside property was utilized as a full school campus which means there would be a change to the flow of traffic to and from the campus. District staff are currently working with construction and traffic experts to assess options that ensure the campus and neighborhood are easily accessible. Please check back for the latest updates.