Fresno Unified School District | Office of Communications | 2309 Tulare Street, Fresno, CA 93721 | (559) 457-3733

What:  The district continues to move forward on a new elementary campus – the Juan Felipe Herrera Elementary School in southeast Fresno.

When:  Demolition and mass earthwork excavation started July 21, 2020.

Availability: Video and photos available for download using the links below.

The Fresno Unified Board of Education approved the award of a construction contract for the Juan Felipe Herrera Elementary School at the June 10 board meeting. This campus will be Fresno Unified’ s first new elementary campus since the opening of Vang Pao Elementary School in 2012.

The two-story 84,242-square-foot school with 36 classrooms, four soccer fields, outdoor play courts, student gardens, open courtyards, snack bar with restrooms and proposed new school based clinic will be built on 17 acres south of Church Avenue between Peach and Willow avenues. The school is scheduled to open in August 2022.  

The campus will have a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics focus, and a dual language immersion program.

It will be built with funds from the Measure X bond voters overwhelmingly approved in 2016. The school will serve a portion of students currently in the attendance areas for Ayer, Aynesworth and Storey elementary schools.

The elementary is named for Juan Felipe Herrera, the son of migrant farmworkers who was born in Fowler. He was the nation’s Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017 and a former Fresno State professor. Herrera is the artistic cultural advisor in the conceptual development of this facility.

Demolition is nearing completion this week on the school site, which had housed Phoenix Secondary Academy. Video and photos of the site work are available for download. 

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