Students and staff at a charter school campus in Fair Oaks were evacuated Tuesday afternoon after the school received a bomb threat, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office reported. The California Montessori Project's American River campus, located at 6838 Kermit Lane, was confirmed to be evacuated by a crew on scene.
What We Know About the Evacuation
According to KCRA, the campus was evacuated Tuesday after the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office reported that the school received a bomb threat. The station reported that its crew observed the evacuation in progress and that it reached out to the California Montessori Project for more information.
The American River campus sits inside a district-owned facility that the charter school leases from San Juan Unified School District, the station's report noted. California Montessori Project operates its Fair Oaks site on the former Littlejohn Elementary school grounds.
An Independent Charter Operating on District Property
Though it occupies San Juan Unified-owned land, California Montessori Project operates as an independent charter network, per the same KCRA account, separate from the district that owns the Kermit Lane property. The network serves more than 3,000 Transitional Kindergarten through 8th-grade students across six campuses in the Sacramento area, with authorization spanning four school districts including San Juan Unified, Elk Grove Unified, Sacramento City Unified, and Buckeye Union.
Classrooms at CMP campuses are structured as multi-grade groupings averaging 24 students; most have both a lead teacher, who holds California credentials and Montessori certifications, and a teaching assistant, according to the California Montessori Project's own program description.
Safety Planning Requirements Already in Place
The evacuation comes after California Montessori Project's Governing Board approved updated 2025–2026 School Safety Plans for all of its network campuses, including the American River site, during a February 2025 meeting following updates from its network safety coordinator. Under California Education Code Sections 32280 through 32289, all public and charter schools statewide must annually update and adopt Comprehensive School Safety Plans by March 1 specifying emergency response and evacuation procedures, according to the Self Insured Schools of California.
Looking ahead, California Assembly Bill 2968 will require public and charter schools in designated fire hazard zones to include formal refuge shelter identification and early-warning evacuation communication procedures in their safety plans beginning in the 2026–2027 fiscal year, per LegiScan. The law amends Education Code Section 32282 to expand wildfire and emergency evacuation planning statewide.
A District Already Under Financial Strain
The evacuation lands at a difficult moment for the campus's landlord. Hoodline previously reported a potential broader budget shortfall of $10.4 million for San Juan Unified School District after enrollment fell by roughly 1,200 students overnight. That local financial pressure echoes a broader statewide trend: California Department of Finance projections estimate that public K-12 school enrollment will drop by 710,500 students by the 2035–2036 school year, driven primarily by falling birth rates and domestic migration.
The reported bomb threat prompted Tuesday's evacuation at the American River campus. Details about how quickly students were reunited with families had not been released as of the time of publication.
