Charter school to relocate campus to Citrus Heights office building

By Sara Beth Williams–
American River Collegiate Academy, which initially planned to build a new campus on Antelope Road, has announced plans to relocate to a long-term campus in Citrus Heights for the 2024-25 school year.

According to a slideshow presentation in an April 12 newsletter, the academy plans to relocate from their current campus in Orangevale to a facility on Sunrise Vista Drive. The specifications list the facility as a three-story building on 100,000 square feet of land, which includes two access streets and two parking lots. Other highlights of the facility included private and secure access.

An architectural layout shared in a subsequent May 10 newsletter showed proposed renovations for the first floor of the facility, which includes swapping out existing windows for access doors, space for 23 classrooms, several break out intervention rooms, a section for administration offices, and a multipurpose room and kitchen.

In an email to The Sentinel on Tuesday, Rocklin Academy Family of Schools Superintendent Robin Stout confirmed that the public charter anticipates opening the new campus in time for the 2024-25 school year. Currently, Stout is working with the City of Citrus Heights on the site plan, along with an associated traffic study.

The updated May 10 presentation proposes a plan for one half of the building to be renovated in time for the 2024-25 school year, with the first floor designated for preschool, transitional kindergarten, and kindergarten, the second floor for first, second and third grade, and the third floor for fourth, fifth and sixth grade. Later, the second half of the facility can be used to accommodate an expansion to middle and high school grades.

The next steps listed to be completed through the summer include a traffic study completed by City of Citrus Heights, permits issued through Sacramento County, demolition of the floor of the facility, finalizing the lease agreement, and material revisions with the Sacramento Office of Education.

Stout said from the onset of the public charter’s approval in 2019, the academy has been “continuously working on a sustainable long-term facility within the City of Citrus Heights.”

“We are highly committed to ensuring that our students have their needs met in our current and future facilities,” Stout said when asked about the future of the current campus in Orangevale, adding that the academy has strived to provide “on-going collaborative engagement with our families” through regular facility meetings.

The American River Collegiate Academy is currently using temporary classroom facilities at 7755 Hazel Ave., in Orangevale. The charter school serves grades TK through 3rd grade and plans to add one higher grade per year.

The publicly funded charter school is part of the Rocklin Academy Family of Schools, which includes Rocklin Academy, Rocklin Academy Gateway, Rocklin Academy Preschool, and Western Sierra Collegiate Academy.