Murray breaks ground on new Riverview Junior High

Community leaders and school officials gathered at the Riverview Junior High site to mark the ceremonial start of construction on a replacement junior high building funded by a community-supported bond.

Speakers said the project is meant to replace the existing Riverview building, which staff said has served generations since 1961, and to provide classrooms and facilities designed for 21st-century learning.

"Hope is not a feeling. ... hope is a choice," said a ceremony speaker, who credited community backing for the bond and asked those present to "break ground on a hopeful future for Riverview Junior High School." Principal Kaufman, who spoke about long-standing ties to the site, recalled attending football camp on the field decades ago and described the milestone as the end of one chapter and the start of another: new traditions for a future generation of students.

Jennifer Covington, superintendent of the Murray School District, said the current Riverview building has been in use since "02/1961" and described the new junior high as "a promise of possibility, of space that supports how students learn and how they'll grow into the leaders of tomorrow." She said science labs, classrooms sized for modern instruction and more charging outlets are part of the plan.

Covington also outlined the anticipated student transition: students now in third, fourth and fifth grades will be the cohorts to move into the new building; the district plans to operate the site as a middle school with sixth, seventh and eighth graders beginning in the fall of 2027. She thanked staff, teachers and community members for supporting public education and invited attendees to mark the day by taking ceremonial photos and shovels.

The program closed with an invitation for members of the board of education to come forward along with Principal Kaufman and Assistant Principal Roberts for the ceremonial groundbreaking.