BANTA — Things are looking “EPIC” in River Islands with the Banta Unified School District board of trustees voting to approve EPIC Academy as the name of River Islands new K-8 charter school, and River Islands High School for the future secondary school during a board meeting Sept. 9.

Superintendent Rechelle Pearlman asked trustees to pick their top two names for the K-8 out of a list of five options: EPIC Academy, STRIVE Academy, Valley Oak Academy, River View Academy and Inspiration Academy. The initial choices were derived from community, school staff and student input, she said.

After a brief discussion, all of the trustees had EPIC Academy as one of their top two choices.

“I think this is super cool that we get to have a part in this,” said Trustee Doug Diestler. “To actually get to vote this in; I think that’s amazing.”

 When discussing the name EPIC Academy, Trustee Patricia Speer said, “I felt like it was a powerful name.” Trustee Gene Neely said he thought EPIC Academy created a natural flow after naming the other two River Islands schools River Islands Technology Academy and STEAM Academy.

The acronym for EPIC is Empower, Personalize, Innovate, and Collaborate.

The K-8 school is located on Penrose Lane and it will consist of nine buildings, including a multipurpose building and administration building. The project broke ground in June and sits on 15 acres. It is slated for occupation in August 2022 with a projected cost of $45 million that is being funded by the developer of River Islands.  

When it came to the naming of the future high school, the board members were unanimous on their vote for River Islands High School. Other name options included Paradise High School and River View High School.

“There’s a community, there’s excellence to it,” said Diestler. “I feel like the high school carrying the same name as the community just makes sense. I think that vision of that community and what the high school represents, that’s just such an important part of the community, a school. I love the vision, the whole feel of the River Islands community. It feels right to me that the high school, the first high school, should carry that name.”

The future River Islands high school will be located on Paradise Road on 46 acres. The campus will be open with two-story classroom wings, CTE buildings and a gymnasium. A later phase of construction will include classrooms and a smaller gymnasium on campus. Also in a later phase, a stadium will be built next to Islanders Field in the future Town Center area.

The cost of the high school is estimated at $144 million and expected to break ground in 2022 with doors opening to students in 2023.

During discussions, Speer said she liked calling it River Islands High School, because cities like Tracy, Manteca and Ripon all named their high school after their community. She said even though the high school will be located in the city of Lathrop, it is in the community of River Islands.

Trustees Speer, Diestler, Neely and Karen Dell’Osso approved both school names by a vote of 4-0-1 with Trustee Joshua Anderson absent from the meeting.