For the first time in nearly two decades, the Lodi (California) Unified School District has begun construction on a new campus.
The Lodi News-Sentinel reports that the district has broken ground on Samuel M. Gantner Elementary School.
The school is expected to primarily serve transitional kindergarten through sixth grade, but it could accommodate seventh- and eighth-grade students if needed.
The new campus will help relieve crowding at Vinewood and Larson elementary schools. Vinewood enrolls about 540 students, and Larson serves about 850.
The district says Gantner Elementary will have a capacity of 650 students in a TK-6 configuration and up to 850 students if expanded to serve TK-8.
It will be the district’s first new campus since Ronald E. McNair High School opened in 2008. It is expected to open in 2028-29
The school has been named for Samuel M. Gantner, the first Lodi resident killed during World War II. On Dec. 7, 1941, Gartner, then 21, was aboard the USS Nevada at Pearl Harbor when Japanese forces attacked. He was killed during the battle and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
