District Spotlight: New Elementary School Marks Next Chapter for Norris

When Norris School District opened its first one-room schoolhouse in 1882, just 10 students attended classes on land donated by a local farmer. Nearly 145 years later, the district is preparing to build again, continuing a long history of adding schools as new families and neighborhoods take root in the community.

Norris has traditionally served families in far northwest Bakersfield, growing alongside the neighborhoods that transformed the area over the past several decades.

Today, that growth is continuing north of 7th Standard Road into Gossamer Grove, a large and still-expanding residential community within the Shafter city limits. There, the district has completed the purchase of property on Cobble Creek Drive for a new TK-6 elementary school expected to open for the 2028-29 school year.

The new campus will become the district’s fifth elementary school.

A look back

Norris School District was formed in 1880 and named for Robert Norris, a local farmer who donated an acre of his land for a school site. Classes were initially held in a private home until a one-room red schoolhouse was completed two years later. The school served students in grades one through eight, many of whom arrived on horseback or in horse-drawn buggies and wagons.

That original schoolhouse served the community for 32 years. It was eventually moved and used for grain storage before being donated to the Kern County Museum in 1959, where it remains today.

As the community grew, so did the district. A larger school was built in 1914, complete with two classrooms, an auditorium, library and bell tower. The bell that once summoned students to class is now displayed outside the Norris Middle front office.

Another school was built in 1960 as average daily attendance reached 115 students. Over time, the site expanded to accommodate Norris Elementary School, Norris Middle School and the district offices.

Growth accelerated in the decades that followed. The district expanded the original site to 28 acres, and by 1992 it served 1,264 students, more than double its enrollment in 1980.

Norris also began adding schools as residential development spread across northwest Bakersfield. Olive Drive Elementary School opened in 1989, followed by Bimat Elementary School in 2001.

The original campus continued to evolve as well. In 2003, eight classrooms and a gymnasium were added to Norris Middle School as the first stage of a larger renovation of the decades-old campus. Due to the growth of Norris Middle School, in 2005, a new Norris Elementary School campus was opened and the school completely relocated to the new Old Farm Road and Snow Road location.

Veterans Elementary School opened in 2007 at Olive and Old Farm roads, becoming the district’s fourth elementary school. By the 2008-09 school year, district attendance had grown to more than 3,500 students.

Today, Norris is once again responding to significant growth.

The district had planned to build an additional elementary school before the COVID-19 pandemic, when total enrollment approached 4,400 students. Those plans were paused after enrollment declined during the pandemic and the district was unable to meet its earlier projections.

Over the past four years, however, enrollment has rebounded. Continued and projected development in Gossamer Grove and other communities along 7th Standard Road created the need to revisit plans for another neighborhood school, according to district officials.

“This is an incredible milestone for the Norris School District and for the growing Gossamer Grove community,” Superintendent Cy Silver said. “We are elated to bring a new neighborhood school to this community and look forward to creating a beautiful, welcoming campus where generations of students will learn, grow, and thrive.”

Designed by PJHM Architects, the new campus will sit on 14 acres and is planned to serve up to 850 students. Plans call for eight Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms, 24 classrooms for students in grades 1-6 and five Special Day Classrooms.

The campus will include a library, multipurpose spaces, areas for band, choir and physical education, and outdoor play areas and fields. It will be adjacent to the 7.8 acre Community Park.

The project will be funded through a special tax bond from the RNR Community Facilities District, developer fees, district facilities reserves and state matching funds.

District officials said they reviewed enrollment trends, projected residential growth, construction timelines and available resources before deciding to move forward with the project.

The community can expect to see activity at the Cobble Creek Drive site beginning soon, along with the launch of a new website featuring construction updates. Additional information, including the school’s name, attendance boundaries and programs, will be announced later this year.

The new campus will look much different from the one-room red schoolhouse that welcomed Norris students in 1882, but its purpose will be familiar.

Norris School District Superintendent Cy Silver shares a moment with students at Norris Middle School.

Artist renderings from PJHM Architects show what the new school is expected to look like when it opens in Aug. 2028.