Virginia M. Parks Elementary School in Ceres, California is located in on the northern edge of Ceres, a small town of 31,000 in central San Joaquin Valley. The campus is sixteen years old with approximately 849 K-6 students. The school community encompasses a wide range of cultural, linguistic and economic diversity.

"Pride and Excellence", our school’s motto, exemplifies the spirit of the Virginia Parks School community and our vision and mission statement. Our common vision and mission statement was developed at the Virginia Parks Community Conference with input and participation from all segments of the school community including parents, teachers, instructional assistants, librarian, administration and the community at large. "We, the Virginia Parks’ Community, believe that all children will learn in a safe and encouraging environment where their worth, strengths and individual learning styles are recognized so they may become self-sufficient, productive and honorable citizens."

The Virginia Parks community has successfully met the challenge of implementing the new traditional schedule.

Staff is comprised of experienced, dedicated professionals from a variety of backgrounds. Fifteen teachers, as well as the principal, have been mentor teachers. Staff training is on going and high quality. All staff members are involved in site and district committees. Print rich classrooms are literature based and provide many thematic experiences for children. Due to the efforts of our parents, staff, and community, all our classrooms, library and office are hooked up to the Internet. The library and intermediate classrooms have a bank of five networked computers.

Students demonstrate high-level learning, school pride and a sense of ownership of the school facility. Students take an active role in their education and the running of the school.

Student Council has several school-wide projects and produces weekly news broadcast on our closed circuit television system - Panther Vision. All teachers engage students in active learning as evidenced by student standardized test scores, individual student portfolios, student report cards, and a 98% attendance rate! Virginia Parks has consistently received high marks illustrating growth beyond stated expectations. Our School Crime Report indicated Virginia Parks is a safe school, free of vandalism and graffiti. Classrooms and other facilities are impeccable, as is student behavior because both staff and students set high academic and behavioral expectations.

Virginia Parks is the school of choice! Each year, we have a significant number of requests to transfer to our school. This year, we had a waiting list of over 275 students. The epitome of compliments is that children want to come and learn at Virginia Parks.