Troubled area loses its heart in closing
Published: Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Fruit Ridge Elementary outlasted the Great Depression, two World Wars, the encroachment of urban Sacramento, dozens of principals and hundreds of teachers.
But it couldn't overcome the deep, systematic problems reshaping the entire Sacramento City Unified School District.
The south Sacramento school, opened in 1911, will close at the end of this school year, along with six other nearby schools. Like elsewhere in the district, enrollment at Fruit Ridge is down. The population in the surrounding community is shrinking and aging. Incomes are falling. Homeownership is decreasing.