Lodi charter school expands
Rio Valley Charter School opens new location in Bella Terra Plaza
At Rio Valley Charter School, you will not find students seated in rows for several hours a day, five days a week. Instead, the school day is a bit more flexible. Rio Valley is a school that offers a different method of delivering education through homestudy and independent study while still maintaining the community environment offered by brick and mortar schools.
More than a month ago, Rio Valley officially moved into a new location in Bella Terra Plaza on Kettleman Lane just to the right of Impact Sports Center, which the school sometimes uses for its P.E. program. The school was previously located further west on Kettleman Lane in a small business complex. There the school occupied two separate suites which were separated by a mortgage company. With the new site, students will no longer have to travel between buildings in the cold and rain, said director and principal Dr. Marcie Grill.
“My students are really excited about the new location,” said Rio Valley teacher Romyl Mabanta, “They love being by the Snack Attack and the other food places and being able to walk from teacher meeting to class.”
The new site offers more square footage and a centralized location for the school’s administration, as well as seven dedicated classrooms for its students from transitional kindergarten to 12th grade.
For the first part of the school year, as the school awaited final approvals for the new site, Rio Valley students were attending school at Century Assembly.
Rio Valley Charter School has been serving the greater Lodi area for six years as part of the Pacific Charter Institute. It is also authorized by Lodi Unified School District and is currently undergoing it’s next five-year accreditation process.
Although it is a Lodi-based school, students have come from Contra Costa, Amador and Sacramento counties to take advantage of the programs offered. There are currently more than 300 students enrolled.
“It’s for students who are looking for variety. We have high school students who have jobs and students who are in sports and need a more flexible schedule,” Grill said.
How the programs work is that families are matched up with a credentialed teacher who guides them in curriculum and offers courses that students can come in to attend. Some study can happen at home and some can happen in a classroom certain times during the week, similar to the schedule of a community college class. This is especially useful for independent study high school students who may need more teacher involvement than the parents can give them in certain subject, Grill said.
Students in independent study meet with a teacher every week and the program offers classes like integrated arts and English courses as well as science labs. There’s also the ability to get work experience, take media arts classes and get involved in a music program and workshops for students and families for support through the homeschool process.
Grill said that there is often a misconception of what homeschooling and independent study is like, and that it is not an isolating experience if you don’t want it to be.
Students are very familiar with faculty and staff as well as other students at the school. Rio Valley even offers the chance to go on field trips and organizes park days for students and families to get together in the community.
Grill’s own daughter is enrolled in the school and as a parent, she also enjoys having her daughter involved in the student leadership program and integrating theater arts with English education.
“There are many roads to education. You just have to find what’s best for you,” Grill said.
Families interested in enrolling in Rio Valley Charter School can visit the website at
call 209-3684934 or stop by the new office at 1110 W. Kettleman Lane, Suite 10.