Cesar Chavez Academy - Introduction of The CCA Middle School

Introduction of The CCA Middle School

The first year students enrolled at Cesar Chavez was in the fall of 1996 in grades K through 3, with slightly over 100 students. The first CCA grade school principal was Dr. Carlos Lopez, who stayed for one year. The first year was particularly difficult as the new board, teachers, students and parents all grappled with the enormous responsibility involved with providing a quality education for the community. Over time additional grades were added to the Cesar Chavez Academy one class at a time until the school eventually outgrew the St. Gabriel location and needed to add grades 6 through 8. In 1998 the Cesar Chavez School Board rented a building off Trumbull and Labrosse to house the establishment of a middle school in a building that once was the headquarters of the Joe Muer restaurant chain. This middle school building location – some five miles away from the grade school necessitated the establishment of bus transportation system between the two campuses. While all agreed that the location was too far away in distance from the grade school, there were no other suitable building locations in the area, and this was the best the Board could do at that time. The first middle school principal was Terry Blevens, who was then followed up by founding school board member Beatrice Esquivel who left the Cesar Chavez Academy Board of Directors to become the middle school principal.