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City to extend water line to Beaver School
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The city of Ceres has formally approved extending water lines 1,700 feet down Central Avenue to serve a new elementary school campus to be constructed near Grayson Road.

The Ceres Unified School District is in the process of plans to build Patricia "Kay" Beaver Elementary School on the west side of Central Avenue just north of the Grayson Road.

On Oct. 8 the Ceres City Council approved an out-of-boundary service application to the Stanislaus Local Agency Formation Commission. Before the city can run the water line outside of the city limits, LAFCO must approve the extension.

CUSD had planned to drill a well for the site but water tested too high in the area of arsenic and manganese for state drinking water standards.

The school will have its own septic system for wastewater.

CUSD preferred to move the Beaver school site to the West Landing master plan and annexation which added 960 acres to the north of the school site. However, the state rejected CUSD's request. Despite CUSD wanting to build Beaver school inside the West Landing area, the district didn't want to jeopardize the project because the state is fully funding the school since CUSD is considered a hardship district.

Once completed, Beaver Elementary will house 847 students at build-out and employ 60 personnel.

The city expects the school to ship about 273,600 gallons of water per day, which is about 1.5 percent of overall pumping capacity, through a 10-inch line starting at Redwood Road. Landscaping on the 13-acre campus will be irrigated from well water.

The school will open in 2014.

CUSD is also building two other schools: Walt L. Hanline Elementary School, next to Central Valley High School on South Central Avenue; and Lucas Elementary School on Don Pedro Avenue west of Mitchell Road.

At $20 million each, the three schools are being funded entirely by state money. They will be constructed in the same cost-effective way as were Adkison, La Rosa, Berryhill, Sinclear and Hidahl campuses, by contractor Bruns-Belmont.

While Ceres has not seen any recent residential construction, the three campuses will allow CUSD to accommodate more students when building activity returns.

Mrs. Beaver, who died in 2001 after battling cancer, taught history and social studies at Ceres High for over a decade, beginning in 1990. She was the advisor and teacher for the Cereal yearbook class. She started up the S Club, a high school version of the Soroptimist International of Ceres, at CHS.

A Ceres resident from 1993 until her death, Beaver was active in the Ceres Dolphins recreational swim program, PTSA Sober Grad Night and Ceres High Boosters Club. She also served on the Miss Ceres Scholarship Pageant Committee.

CUSD initially decided to build Beaver Elementary so far south of Ceres in the country four years ago because the city of Ceres projected growth would be in that area based on the Copper Trails master plan. City officials believe that West Landing will develop before Copper Trails.