Butterfield Elementary School was a publicly funded grade school in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, in California, USA. It was named after the old Butterfield Overland Stage route which runs in front of the school. It provided many innovative programs to its students. In 1995, Butterfield became the new home of the first Elementary Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Magnet School Program in Riverside County (its first home had been Elsinore Elementary School). Coincidentally, the second VAPA school program in Riverside County started in September 1991 at Butterfield School of the Arts in the Moreno Valley Unified School District, in Moreno Valley, CA
Butterfield Elementary School received many grants and awards, especially in the performing arts field. Students from Butterfield performed with well-known groups and celebrities, such as The Young Americans and Mark Wahlberg. This school closed permanently on June 3, 2010, after 28 years of service to the community. The entire student and teacher population (along with the same attendance boundaries) moved 3 miles south to the campus of Lakeland Village Middle School which was renamed Lakeland Village School as it became a K-8 school. This was basically a relocation of the Butterfield Community into a new location, which was to an underused four-year-old middle school building. The school kept the same students and teachers, although the classified staff and the principal changed. Two-thirds of the existing middle school population of students and teachers moved to different schools. The Butterfield name and history were carried forward in the renaming of the Lakeland Village auditorium as the Butterfield Performing Arts Center, although the Butterfield Community continued on under the new name.
A renaissance of Butterfield Elementary by the Fall of 2015 was planned, as the LEUSD hired an architectural firm and construction company to rebuild the campus. It was expected that some primary grades would return to the campus for the 2015/16 year and the rest of the campus would reopen to Grades up through the 6th grade by the fall of 2016. At that time Lakeland Village School would have reformed as a 7th/8th grade Junior High Campus, as the remaining elementary students would have returned to Butterfield. However, after investigation by the planning and architectural firms, it was decided that reconstruction costs would be too high to deal with possible seismic refits and the plan to reopen the school has been cancelled. The idea of a Butterfield Renaissance appears to now be dead.
The site has been purchased by Riverside County to be used as a Community Center which will be called the Lakeland Village Community Center. The Grand Opening of the Lakeland Village Community Center officially took place on June 11, 2016, 6 years after the closing day of Butterfield Elementary. The beautiful student murals have all been painted over and many trees have been cut down. The portable classrooms are in the process of being removed, and the modular classrooms are being renovated. The Butterfield School Library has been converted into a Fitness/Dance Room; the Staff Lounge has become an Arts & Crafts Room, and the Teacher Workroom has become the Tots Room. The old Health Office is now a Reading Room. The Multipurpose Room has had beautiful wood floors installed and a wheelchair lift has been added for access to the stage.