Dinuba High School Vice Principal Gloria Valencia met with the Emperor Grapevine staff for a press conference to share news about the new middle school being added to Dinuba’s school district. Valencia has been named as the Principal of the new school.

As Dinuba continues to grow, the school district is preparing for a major change with the new opening of Dinuba Intermediate School (DIS). The new middle school will now be for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students. DIS is designed to welcome approximately 650 students in the upcoming school year. Along with a new school comes new traditions, colors, and a new mascot. 

The current Vice Principal of the sophomore class at DHS, Gloria Valencia, has been appointed principal at DIS, and alongside her are Micah Hiett and Jessica Juarez as Learning Directors. The existing staff who work at Washington Intermediate School (WIS) and new hires would be divided between the two schools.

Students’ schedules and daily routines at the new school are being changed to make things run more smoothly and feel less crowded. Sixth graders will have a different bell schedule from seventh- and eighth-graders, with separate nutrition breaks and lunch times. Most seventh- and eighth-graders will stay on North Campus during the day, while sixth-graders will walk to the cafeteria under staff supervision. 

The cafeteria, which currently seats around 150 students, will be upgraded with outdoor seating and remodeled into a more modern, food court-style space, similar to the design at the DHS campus.  This was made possible with a $200,000 grant.

Teachers and staff at the new campus will come from different schools across the district. Some teachers from elementary schools like Wilson, Jefferson, and Grandview will transfer there, and about half of the staff from Washington Intermediate will also move to the new school. 

School leaders also want to create fun traditions and a strong school culture right from the start. Some ideas include recreating an old graduating class with the new staff, inspired by a 1912 photo, and creating a time capsule to preserve memories from the school’s first year.

Converting DHS to DIS

Right now, the new middle school site is undergoing renovations for the grand opening in the fall. These renovations include taking apart the old science classrooms and rebuilding them into normal classrooms. Furthermore, there are many heirlooms left behind on the campus from previous DHS graduating classes. For the time being, Mrs. Valencia will let these heirlooms be a part of DIS, but she hopes to send them over to our new high school when possible. Nonetheless, Mrs. Valencia finds it important to show what’s left behind as a reminder for DIS students on where they will be heading after middle school. 

Since 1938, the former site of Dinuba High has had students ages 14 to 18 walk its halls, but now students ages 11 to 14 will be the ones to set foot on the site. But it won’t look the same as it did a year or two back. “We’re going to be using North Campus,” stated Valencia. “The science buildings where Ms. Burner used to be will be converted to regular classrooms, and so those will no longer be science labs.”

It’s not just the science buildings that have changed; the portable classrooms by the pool on that campus have been taken down as well. “The portables behind that building, that’ll be our English classrooms,” Valencia explained. “Regarding PE, they’ll have access to the stadium, both gyms, the weight room, and possibly the pool.”

The Agriculture buildings and the adjacent NJROTC buildings will no longer be used. This is for safety reasons, as they are off-campus structures, and it would be risky to have younger people cross the street, unlike the older high school students who regularly crossed between those two buildings and the main site itself.

How the district will be split

Both DIS and WIS will now serve grades 6 through 8, meaning that sixth-grade students will officially become part of the intermediate school system. To divide students between campuses, the specific elementary schools in the Dinuba Unified School District have been assigned to each site. Grandview, Jefferson, and Wilson students will attend DIS, while Kennedy, Lincoln, and Roosevelt students will attend WIS.

Although the two schools will share similar classes and opportunities, there will be some differences in traditions and experiences. For example, eighth-grade promotions will be held separately. WIS will continue to host its ceremony on campus in the morning, while DIS plans to hold its promotion ceremony in the afternoon at the football stadium, similar to high school graduations.

A new principal: Gloria Valencia

 Valencia brings more than a decade of leadership experience and a strong educational background to the new campus. During a recent presentation, Valencia shared her goals for the school, upcoming campus changes, and her commitment to supporting students and staff at DIS as it prepares for its bright future.

Valencia graduated from Reedley High School and attended college at UCLA. After college, she came back to teach at Orange Cove High School. Valencia says she feels it is her way to give back to the community she grew up in. She explained that the principal and learning director at the first school where she worked inspired her to go into administration. After becoming a learning director herself, she realized that leading a school had become one of her biggest career goals.

As a UCLA graduate, Valencia emphasized that she wants to improve the school environment while maintaining respect for its history and the community. She hopes to strengthen programs and opportunities for students.

Valencia shared that she has always wanted to create change within a school site and help bring the community together. She stated she wants the new middle school to feel welcoming and connected, not only for students, but also for parents and teachers. “Leadership is about building relationships and creating traditions that students can remember for years,”  she said.

Mascot and school colors

One exciting announcement was the school mascot and colors. The new school mascot will be the Hawks, with green and white as their official colors. Valencia explained that students and parents helped choose the mascot through voting and advisory committees. Parents were able to vote on ParentSquare for a week before the final decision was made. 

The school’s name took a long time to be approved; some may think it is a simple voting process, but in reality, it’s not that easy. Valencia put out an online survey for parents and other community members to participate in and share their thoughts on the school name and mascot. 

“If it were up to me, it would be named Valencia Intermediate School, and my favorite animal is a sea turtle, so it would’ve been a sea turtle”, Valencia joked. 

After leaving the survey up for about a week, Mrs. Valencia collected all the data she needed to identify the top five most popular names. 

Before she could pick a name, she had to create an advisory committee. With the committee’s help, they narrowed it down to one name: HAWKS. Their reasoning for the name is that the red-tailed hawk is native to Dinuba. Furthermore, they wanted the mascot to connect to the other intermediate school. Washington Intermediate is home to the Thunderbirds, whose color scheme borrows from the red-tailed hawk.

As for the school’s colors, the decisions were more practical, opting to keep the current campus colors of green and white.  Valencia stated there are two reasons why these colors were chosen. First, repainting the school in new colors would be too expensive; second, having the junior and high school colors the same would be a financial benefit for both schools. It was widely known that the old high school would be transformed into the new junior high, with its official opening on August 10th of this year. The rough estimation of about three months would not be enough time for the construction crew to paint the school, as they are still in the process of repairs and moving the classrooms around. 

The second reason for the choice was that having similar colors is financially beneficial to both schools. Since the color scheme is the same, parents and students who buy clothes from one school can use them for another. An example: If a student buys the P.E. uniform at the new middle school and it still fits them when they enter high school, they can use those clothes. Parents who may have both children at the high and junior high school can buy clothes from either school and give them to their children, and the money goes back towards the schools. The colors represent the students’ pride in and connection to their school, regardless of grade. 

Sports

A new opportunity is on the horizon for many young Dinuba athletes. The home of the Hawks will continue the same sports programs as Washington Intermediate School, with the addition of water polo and swim teams due to its access to the aquatic center. Along with the aquatic center, all other athletic facilities, such as the stadium, tennis courts, softball fields, and gyms, will be shared among DHS, DIS, and WIS until DHS expands its campus to include its own facilities. Until then, practice and game schedules will be discussed by Athletic Directors Jeffery Scholfield and Richard Crecelius to keep facilities running smoothly. 

Instead of splitting sports teams between the two schools, there will be a single team called the Spartans. The joint program will be for all grade levels, with tryouts for 7th- and 8th-grade teams, while 6th-grade teams will be inclusive (no cuts).  For many rising athletes, this is a new, and maybe even scary, experience. Many coaches and players at the varsity level will be able to assist and be present for younger athletes, helping athletes of all ages feel more connected and inspired to pursue their athletic goals. It may lead to greater success in a variety of sports. 

Into the future

With all of these changes, the district hopes to create more space and a stronger sense of community for middle school students in Dinuba.  New memories will be created at Dinuba Intermediate School for the next generations of students in Dinuba. This move will foster more opportunities for students to grow in a smaller school. Further growing closer bonds and an overall better learning environment. The first day of school at Dinuba Intermediate will be on August 11th, 2026, the start of a new era.

Go Hawks!