Project

What’s Proposed: A Local Collaboration at UCR

The proposed RUSD STEM Education Center is envisioned to be a place where students will focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), where they learn to grow into careers in these fields. This focus will meet the needs of generations to come.

The proposed school will be designed to accommodate approximately 1200 students (part-time and full time) with a capacity of 800 students at any given time. As of February 2022, UCR and RUSD have began the California Environmental Review Process (CEQA) with UCR acting as the Lead Agency. Following CEQA, a design committee will be selected to begin the process of designing the school. 

Project Roles

The project is based on an innovative partnership between RUSD and UCR. The roles of the project are:

  • The District is the project developer with project approval over programming, funding and operations. 
  • UCR is the property owner and has approval over use of the land and its Board of Regents is the approving entity for the environmental review as such.
  • The City of Riverside has offsite improvement oversight, which requires RUSD to obtain development permits to build the project.

Project Phases 

Before the first class starts, the project has several phases, all of which are open and public processes where opportunities for community engagement and information will be continually pursued and provided. These phases are:

  • Initial evaluation and due diligence on proposed site
  • Formal environmental review
  • Design committee selection and review process
  • Local and state agency approvals
  • Board of Regents approval
  • Board of Education approval
  • Bidding and construction
  • Enrollment process

Similar Partnership Examples

Although this proposed STEM Education Center is a first-of-a-kind project locally for a public education center on a university campus, it is following other successful examples of school district/university partnerships nationwide. Example collaborations from California for both public and private schools include:  

  • International Polytechnic High School at Cal Poly Pomona 
  • California Academy of Mathematics and Science at Cal State Dominguez Hills 
  • The Preuss School at UC San Diego 
  • University High School at Cal State Fresno 
  • Geffen Academy at UCLA

Example Partnerships

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