Clovis’ first school named for a Japanese American opens in a year. Check out designs, logo
Satoshi “Fibber” Hirayama was a World War II Japanese internment camp survivor who went on to become a national and international professional baseball career and a beloved local educator.
Despite all of his successes, Hirayama’s family never expected what the Clovis Unified School District granted them: a school named in his honor.
“We never thought about anything like this,” said Brian Hirayama, one of his three sons.
“Our father was a man that received many honors and awards and numerous accomplishments,” Brian Hirayama said. “But I would have to say, naming the elementary school after him, he would consider that the greatest accomplishment of his life.”
During Wednesday’s Clovis Unified School District board meeting, the district presented the Hirayama family with a proclamation in honor of his legacy and the new Hirayama Elementary school that will open in about a year.
The district’s 35th elementary school is the first school in Clovis named after a Japanese American person.
The school’s official logos, color and school mascot – the Hirayama Heat – were unveiled during the special presentation to the board. Block red letters outlined in white with gold flames read “heat.” A representative character or icon is still to be decided.
Hirayama was born in Fresno in 1930 and raised in Exeter. When he was 12 years old, his family was forcibly moved to the Poston War Relocation Center internment camp in Arizona, where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II.
Once liberated, Hirayama returned to the Valley, was a star student-athlete at Fresno State from 1949 to 1952 and went on to become a professional baseball player in the United States and Japan.
Hirayama returned to the Fresno-Clovis metropolitan area after he retired from sports and began working at Clovis Unified. In his 26-year career with the school district, he was a teacher at Clovis High and the first principal of Gateway High – a continuation school for students at risk of not graduating – before becoming the district’s administrator for personnel until his retirement in 1991.
After retirement, Satoshi Hirayama continued to be involved with Clovis Unified and collected awards and recognition for his athletic and academic achievements. He died in 2021 at age 91.
Like their father, both Brian and Kevin Hirayama worked in athletics and education at schools in the Fresno and Clovis school districts. They said the naming of the future elementary school in their father’s honor was – and continues to be – a big surprise.
“I’m still in shock about this,” Kevin Hirayama said. “This is really going to happen!”
Proudly sporting custom-ordered, sparkly red earrings that read “heat,” Hirayama Elementary’s founding principal, Laura Reynolds, smiled from ear to ear before the special presentation to the district’s board.
“Having someone who persevered through so much and came out of it with a sense of humor, contributing to our local community in such a positive way, is certainly an important element of the school,” Reynolds said.
What to expect in the next year
Hirayama Elementary will be located at Fowler and McKinley avenues, where construction is underway. The school is still scheduled to open in August 2024.
The school’s boundaries were set last year. Elementary school children living within the boundaries will continue in their current schools for the 2023-2034 academic year before transitioning to Hirayama Elementary.
According to the designs, the school campus is expected to include outdoor, multipurpose spaces in between classrooms, a large cafeteria that can double as a space for presentations with a stage, and wide windows for natural light to illuminate the kindergarten, elementary and administration buildings.
The plans also show blossoming trees accompanied by regional plants, proposing easy-to-maintain and sustainable green spaces across the school.
Reynolds previously served as principal for Miramonte Elementary in Clovis, taught for seven years at Fancher Creek Elementary and has more than 19 years of experience in educational teaching and administration.
As Hirayama Elementary’s founding principal, she’s very excited about the future and the community she can help foster.
“I’m planning monthly events for families and monthly parents’ meetings to bring people on board, establish the culture, establish a vision with the community,” Reynolds said.
Families are “such an important part” of the school’s opening process, she said, that she wants them to know they are included and be excited, too.
“I just want to be sure that people know we are welcoming to everybody that’s in our community and that will be coming our way,” Reynolds said. “I really believe in schools being a place for everyone and that we are better when we are learning about each other.”
Similar to Satoshi Hirayama’s beliefs in second chances and giving everyone a fair shot, Reynolds said she wants to make sure students know they have an opportunity at Hirayama Elementary to learn more about themselves and gain an “appreciation for those that are different from them.”
Clovis Unified created a website for Hirayama Elementary, where school details are posted and those interested can sign up for update newsletters from Reynolds.
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