Rancho Cordova STEM elementary expands to middle school. Why it matters
Several people described the energy at Riverview STEM Academy Thursday morning as “electric” — a fitting term for a K-6 (and soon to be K-8) school focused on technology and science.
Teachers, administrators and local leaders gathered in front of the Folsom Cordova Unified School District Thursday morning to welcome families to the school, which is expanding to middle grades starting this year. First-time and returning students were greeted by music, chalk art and Astro the astronaut, the school’s mascot.
Former fifth graders who would have moved on to one of the district’s standard middle schools returned for sixth grade. Next year, the school will scale up to a full K-8.
The goal, many school leaders said, is to get kids interested in STEM topics at an early age when they are the most open to learning. The school integrates age-appropriate science and tech into lesson plans for each grade level, including as young as kindergarten.
“Our five year-olds are far more curious than older people are, and so getting a STEM education in front of our students as early as possible keeps their curiosity going and gives them an opportunity to be scientists or engineers or mathematicians or entrepreneurs,” Folsom Cordova Unified Superintendent Erik Swanson said.
The problem, as it stood before, was that kids attending this magnet school didn’t have a set middle school to attend. Although the school of 420 mostly serves its surrounding neighborhood, students would often end up at different middle schools, or sometimes leave the district. There also wasn’t a similar middle school program that offered a STEM-focused education.
Now, students at Riverview will be able to continue their education through 8th grade.
“Initially I was sad that I would have to go to a different school, but now that there’s K-8 I get to stay a little longer,” said Clayton, a fifth-grader.
Swanson said that the school district is also working to build a STEM program at Cordova High School so that students have the option to continue a similar pathway throughout their secondary education.
Vice Mayor of Rancho Cordova Garrett Gatewood said that the expansion of the STEM school is part of the city’s growing identity as a hub for tech innovation and industry. He hinted at upcoming partnerships that would bring thousands of tech jobs to the city, and said that providing a STEM-focused education was an important piece of building the local workforce in the decades to come.
“We’re a working class city, and we care more about jobs than anything else, and we want to make sure our kids have a path to jobs,” Gatewood said.
Since the school’s opening in 2014, it has been named one of Sacramento’s top public elementary schools and honored by the California Department of Education as a 2025 California Distinguished School.
