| Thomas Jefferson Middle School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| 83150 Avenue 46, Indio, CA 92201 |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Public |
| Established | 1926 |
| Principal | Esther Lopez |
| Enrollment | ~ 850 |
| Information | 760-863-3660 |
| Mascot | Jaguar |
| Website | official website |
Thomas Jefferson Middle School is a public middle school for grades 6 - 8. It is located in Indio, California in the Coachella Valley, the school is in the Desert Sands Unified School District and has a current enrollment of around 800 in the school year 2009/10. Its mascot is the Jaguar.
In 2007/08 after previous years of below state and federal academic standards, Jefferson Middle had a "9 out of 10" rating for the Desert Sands USD and Riverside County alike. It has a renovated campus and smaller class size, probably the reason why Jefferson Middle School had a California Distinguished Schools Award for academic excellence.
Another middle school (Indio Middle School), Dwight Eisenhower and Theodore Roosevelt grade schools, and the renovated Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren grade schools are awarded CDAs identicates the city has fairly good public education facilities. They happen to be feeder schools or the destination for 5th graders for IMS.
Jefferson Middle School's 8th graders are promoted to Indio High School, though a small proportion attend La Quinta High School and Shadow Hills High School the next year. Jefferson Middle School has a predominantly Hispanic majority, but does have students of all races, ethnic groups and backgrounds.
Founded in 1910 as the Indio Grammar School, it originally was a small school house and it had 50 pupils from the town in need of public education sources. The first building was on the corner of Bliss Avenue and Fargo Street, but was relocated in 1925 to Avenue 46 and Jackson Street. Across was another school facility, erected in 1926 and was christened Thomas Jefferson (grades 5 to 8) and Theodore Roosevelt Schools (grades 1 to 5). The schoolhouse closed in 1940 to be replaced by the George Washington School for grades 1 to 3, while Roosevelt was for grades 4 to 6 (moved to a new site on Avenue 47 and Jackson Street in 1946) and the entire campus across from Washington became a Junior High school. The former Washington school site closed in 1954 to become the first Indio High school site for Jefferson Middle students, which later moved away and the site became the Indio (now Desert Sands) public schools administration office in 1959 (closed and demolished in 1997 when relocated to La Quinta).
Jefferson Middle School is one of 3 oldest public schools in the Coachella Valley still in operation (the other two are Coachella Valley High School and Palm Springs High School). It had the former site of Desert Sands Adult School on its campus in the late 1990s/2000s before a complete renovation to replace older buildings with much newer ones. Jefferson Middle School was briefly closed in the mid 1990s, but reopened as a grade 5 to 8 school and split the 5th/6th grade student body to attend Martin Van Buren school.