Culminating years of hard work, citizens, students, school, and city officials gathered on Tuesday, February 27, to break ground for the new Richmond Middle School. The project will cost approximately $29 million and will be a top quality campus with all permanent buildings. Speakers represented the broad coalition of support that has been necessary to make the dream of a new middle school come to fruition. Representing Richmond, the groundbreaking was attended by Mayor Corbin and Councilmembers Butt, Bell and Belcher. Surprisingly, no members of the press attended.

Richmond mayor Rosemary Corbin said, ³This is a new day for Richmond and for our students. No longer will I have to say that we don¹t have a middle school in the 55 square miles of Richmond. More importantly, no longer will those students who can least afford it have to get on public transportation to ride many miles to get to school.² 

Speaking on behalf of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, John Ziesenhenne spoke to the positive economic consequences of both the construction and presence of the new school sparking a ³renaissance on upper MacDonald Avenue.² 

Greg Feere of the Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades Council pledged their total support to bringing in the school, ³on time, under budget, and, most importantly, safely.² He encouraged local residents who would like to apply for apprenticeship positions on the project to contact him directly (925/228-0900). 

With the opening this fall of the new Hercules Middle High School and the initiation of construction of the new Richmond Middle School, we¹re starting to realize some long awaited dreams to both reduce overcrowding on our middle and high school campuses and develop quality school facilities for heretofore underserved communities.