While a new school year brings new opportunities for all, it is especially the case in Hilmar as TK through second grade elementary school students started their 2024-2025 school year Thursday in an entirely new campus.

Before classes officially began, a community celebration and ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday at the outdoor amphitheater near the entrance of the campus, which sits at 20206 W. Geer Ave. on more than 15 acres of land sitting between Hilmar High School and Elim Elementary School.

Among the many speakers was Principal Susan Azevedo, who described the new facilities as “spectacular.”

“It's a privilege and an honor to be the principal that gets to welcome you here,” she said.

The school was built to accommodate students from TK through second grades. Prior to this school year, the students had been attending Elim, which had slowly become overcrowded. The new campus allows for Elim to focus on teaching third through fifth graders.

There are eight buildings on the new Hilmar Elementary campus, with six housing a total of 25 classrooms to accommodate up to 600 students. Kinder classrooms are the largest in size, allowing room for the energetic youngsters to play. The first and second grade classrooms are similar in size, though the second grade rooms will each be equipped with state-of-the art Smartboards.

In addition to the classrooms, there is a spacious library complimented with colorful and comfortable seating areas and an administrative office. On each side of the outdoor amphitheater are playgrounds, whose construction was made possible with the help of a $10,000 donation from the Hilmar Cheese Company.

“What you see behind us was years of planning and building and getting a bond and doing all the behind the scenes stuff so that tonight we can present this elementary school to the community,” said Hilmar Unified School District Board of Directors President Brent Chipponeri. 

The new school was nearly six years in the making. As Chipponeri alluded to, the project was funded through the Measure G Bond that Hilmar and Stevinson voters approved in November 2018. The measure, which passed with 61.17% of the vote, allowed HUSD to issue $31 million in bonds with an estimated tax rate of 6 cents per $100 of assessed value to build the new school. Construction got underway in the fall of 2022.

“There were so many people that really helped make this happen,” added HUSD Superintendent Isabel Cabral-Johnson. “It was a long journey, and there were many pieces and many paths to get to this. It’s so wonderful to celebrate this with you all.”

Merced County Superintendent of Schools Steve Tietjen also spoke, stressing the importance of supporting public education.

“I wanted to come and just express to all of you how important it is for communities to support their local school boards through things like school bonds,” he said. “The state makes it impossible today to build a new school without community support. You don't get any state matching money unless a local community steps up, and it takes years to get a vision of a new school put into place and (made into) reality.

“What a wonderful new facility you all have here in Hilmar.”