Donna Independent School District administrators, staff, board members, parents and community members gathered Monday, November 14th to celebrate a milestone – the official introduction of Donna ISD’s newly designated early childhood stand-alone campus and intermediate campus.
To commemorate this special occasion, district administrators and leaders from both schools held a ribbon cutting ceremony where the announcement was made. Students in PreK-3 to 2nd grade will launch their academic journey at M. Rivas Primary Discovery Academy then go next door to J.W. Caceres Intermediate Discovery Academy for grades 3rd – 5th.
Superintendent Angela Dominguez commended the Board of Trustees and the individuals who took part in this exciting, innovative and unique endeavor. She told those in attendance that this concept is the only one of its kind in the Rio Grande Valley. Our youngest of students up to fifth grade will be exposed to robotics and coding, together with agriculture and fine arts programs including music, dance, theatre, and visual arts.
“Multiple renovations took place to create this state-of-the art early learning center here at M. Rivas, which is unlike any other in the Rio Grande Valley,” Dominguez said. “This is a unique opportunity for students to have hands-on discovery and early childhood learning through amazing programs. A strong focus on early childhood learning will prepare students for their intermediate experience at J.W. Caceres. We’re very excited to bring this initiative to Donna ISD. It’s open enrollment and we welcome all families to join us.”
The principals from both campuses echoed Superintendent Dominguez’ sentiments. M. Rivas’ Rosalinda Navarro also took the opportunity to tout the early childhood center’s significant increase in student enrollment this academic school year. "We’re extremely excited to see how well our campus is doing,” Navarro said. “Last year at this same time, our enrollment for PK-3 through 2nd grade was 158 students. This year, our enrollment for PK-3-2nd grade is 352. That’s an increase of 194 students for the 2022-2023 school year.”
Joining in on the festivities were elementary and middle school mariachi students who performed for the attendees. Serving as Master of Ceremonies were first grade student Gisselle Salinas from M. Rivas and fifth grade student Alejandra Perez-Trevino from J. W. Caceres.
Following the ceremony, guests along with representatives from the media toured the M. Rivas campus where they saw colorful walls and floors, specially designed academic classrooms and students fully engaged and interacting with their teachers.
