Riverside Unified and UCR call off $134M STEM high school

The Riverside Record: Riverside Unified School District and UC Riverside said Friday they will not move forward with a long-planned $134 million expansion of the district's STEM Academy on UCR-owned land. RUSD Superintendent Sonia Llamas and UCR Chancellor S. Jack Hu, both in their roles since mid-2025, framed the decision as a chance to redirect the partnership toward district-wide STEM programming rather than a single new campus.

The project dated to 2014. The district had completed the environmental impact report and ground lease and was waiting on UC Regents approval that never made it onto an agenda — the Record reported three weeks ago that the file had been stalled since July 2025, when both Llamas and Hu started. RUSD spokesperson Liz Pinney-Muglia said the $1.5 million already spent on the environmental work can't be recovered, and the district will discuss reallocating remaining project funds toward district-wide maintenance.

The cancellation closes a project that had drawn community opposition and, earlier this year, a state audit request from Sen. Sabrina Cervantes over the district's use of 2016 Measure O bond funds and transparency around the lease. The two institutions said they will instead convene a working group to assess broader STEM programming and connect students to UCR resources without building a campus on university land.