Napa's Harvest Middle School To Close, River Middle To Shift

NAPA, CA — Saying it had no other choice due to mounting financial pressures, the Napa Valley Unified School District board voted unanimously to close Harvest Middle School in southwest Napa after the 2021-22 school year while replacing a second middle school with an English-Spanish language immersion academy.

The second school, River Middle School in north Napa, will be replaced by the immersion academy, which will operate at the River Salvador Avenue campus in 2022-23, the Napa Valley Register reported on Friday.

The moves were approved in a 7-0 vote during the board’s meeting Thursday night as the district continued to close schools due to budget constraints. The district previously closed Yountville and Mt. George elementary schools after the 2019-20 school year.

The decision was made after several parents pleaded with board members not to go ahead with the closures, the newspaper reported. The plan will save the district $2.2 million per year and came after months of discussions about downsizing middle school operations in the district due to dwindling enrollment.

“I don’t like having to close schools, but the financial pressures cannot be remedied without school closures,” trustee David Gracia said at the meeting, according to the newspaper.

School administrators are also considering teaching students through the eighth grade at Browns Valley and Shearer elementary schools, superintendent Rosanna Mucetti said during Thursday’s meeting.

The district has forecast an $11.7 million shortfall by 2022-23 while enrollment is expected to continue to fall, the Napa Valley Register reported. The district’s enrollment, which stood at more than 18,000 students in 2014-15, is now below 17,000 and school officials expect it to drop to 14,300 by 2027-28.

“There are no easy parts to it,” board trustee Jason Dooley said during the meeting. “There is no low-hanging fruit that makes it a simple decision. … This decision is not one of judgment of the quality of schools; we’re not deciding based on any failures at these schools. This is a decision that as trustees, we have a duty to manage the resources of the district to provide the best educational opportunity for each and every student.”