There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation circulating regarding the Del Mar Heights School Rebuild project. There have also been a lot of personal attacks, mud-slinging, and misrepresentation of motivations, particularly during the last DMUSD Board meetings. In light of that, I just want to state that this “Save The Del Mar Heights Field!” petition, which I launched 6 months ago, is not affiliated in any way with the Save the Field entity that has hired the Procopio law firm. I and my family are not part of the Save The Field entity and we have contributed $0 funds towards it. The petition’s sole purpose was to inform the community of the changes being made at the Del Mar Heights School campus, and to give people an opportunity to voice their support for maintaining the large field in the new school design. It has never been used for any other purpose. To avoid any further confusion, I will be closing it after this final update.
I truly appreciate all the people that have been advocating for the needs, safety and well-being of our children during this rebuild process. In particular, thank you to John Gartman of Play Outside Del Mar - which is also not affiliated with Save The Field - for relentlessly championing the facts, science and truth when faced with continual manipulated information and numbers. Thank you, to both you and your wife Jill, for persevering while being subjected to false accusations and flat out bullying. When bullies can’t dispute the facts, they attack the messenger.
My original intent in creating this petition was to inform the community about the proposed changes at Del Mar Heights School. To bring that full circle - these are my beliefs, based on what I’ve learned over the past 7 months:
EVERY PERSON IN THIS DISTRICT SHOULD BE DEMANDING AN EVACUATION TIME STUDY FOR THE DEL MAR HEIGHTS SCHOOL SITE!!!
THE FIELD AND BLACKTOP AT THE NEW SCHOOL WILL BE HALF THE SIZE OF WHAT EXISTS TODAY AND THE PUBLIC WILL BE LOCKED OFF.
STUDENT CAPACITY AT THE NEW SCHOOL WILL BE 673 STUDENTS.
THE HILLS WILL EVENTUALLY CLOSE.
WE NEED A NEW SCHOOL!!!
EVERY PERSON IN THIS DISTRICT SHOULD BE DEMANDING AN EVACUATION TIME STUDY FOR THE DEL MAR HEIGHTS SCHOOL SITE - SAFETY ABOVE ALL ELSE. The school is enclosed within a very high wildfire hazard severity zone, located on a fuel-filled canyon, at the end of a cul de sac, with one way in and out, and climate change is increasing the risk of wildfire every year. There are changes in the new design that aggressively increase that risk. The elimination of 82,000 SF of field space also means the elimination of 82,000 SF of potential buffer space from an advancing wildfire. The existing East side fire lane currently allows full access to the interior of the school grounds. The new design only allows interior access by a road that runs for 100 yards tight along the West (canyon) rim, with more than 50FT of that path mere inches away from the edge that drops into dense trees and brush. Upslopes like that are the worst for an advancing fire. If that road is cut off by a wildfire, it could create a fire trap. Additionally, traffic and safety studies were never done for the proposed multi-purpose, multi-directional parking/traffic queue/fire road which dead ends in a turnaround on the East side of the campus; this would be the evacuation route for all students and staff at the very same time that fire trucks and emergency vehicles are arriving. The changes to the design that impact traffic and safety, including emergency vehicle access, should be substantiated by scientific study and data - yet they are not addressed or acknowledged at all in the district’s Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND).
The original Del Mar Heights School was designed for 350 kids. The dramatic increase in permanent structures (portables are not permanent) are being built to accommodate almost twice that number of students. These changes and others are also ignored in the district’s Mitigated Negative Declaration. A full Environmental Impact Review has NEVER been done, should have already been done, and still should be done before this school is rebuilt. It should have been part of the original anticipated expenses and timeline, not screamed about now as additional expense and time. Most importantly, there needs to be an Evacuation Time Study to see if the children, staff, and surrounding community can evacuate in time if there is a wildfire. To learn more, go to the Play Outside Del Mar website and view their CEQA comments and the Sierra Club CEQA comments.
THE FIELD AND BLACKTOP AT THE NEW SCHOOL WILL BE HALF THE SIZE OF WHAT EXISTS TODAY AND THE PUBLIC WILL BE LOCKED OFF. The field will shrink from 160,000 SF of usable field to 78,000 (the district’s 92,000 number is not usable field space). The blacktop will drop from 49,000 SF to 21,500. An acre of play space is being turned into parking and traffic queue. The field is only 55% of the California Department of Education Minimum Requirements. I also believe that the community won’t have access to the Del Mar Heights School field, as, according to the language in the district’s Mitigated Negative Declaration, the new Del Mar Heights School will be “separating public and school uses”.
STUDENT CAPACITY AT THE NEW SCHOOL WILL BE 673 STUDENTS. The new Del Mar Heights school (according to the building plans the district submitted to the DSA) will have a capacity of 673 students, which is more than enough space for the combined students of the Hills and the Heights based on the district’s future projections.
THE HILLS WILL EVENTUALLY CLOSE. Given the district’s future student enrollment projections, how can they fiscally justify 9 schools after the Pacific Highlands Ranch School is built? By creating an all-district Spanish Immersion program at Del Mar Hills, the need for a community school at that location will simply just go away, and the Spanish program can easily be relocated to a Carmel Valley school with unused capacity.
WE ABSOLUTELY NEED A NEW SCHOOL!!! Del Mar Heights School must be rebuilt. A lot of parents and teachers at school are justifiably upset about the deterioration of conditions at the current school, particularly the portables. According to many speakers at the DMUSD board meetings, the school has been allowed to deteriorate, with inadequate mitigation, to such an extent that it is an unsafe environment. The last state School Accountability Report Card rated the Heights overall school facilities as “exemplary” and the “Overall Cleanliness, Pest/Vermin Infestation: Good,” so it would seem the issues were addressed by closing certain portables. If that is not the case, we should be appalled that our children and teachers have been put at risk in moldy, rat infested, leaky classrooms. Some parents and teachers are in an understandable panic because they are concerned about the safety of the existing school, and the Board of Trustees has told us it is this school design, right now, or nothing. But should neglected facilities force us to sacrifice the long term needs and safety of this community? Does the rush to rebuild now justify taking disturbing shortcuts on safety and environmental studies? If the portables are not safe, there are other, temporary, solutions that can be, and should be, implemented to protect our children and teachers. Without question, we need a new school; we also need a responsible rebuild design that puts the safety and well-being of children first.
Nicole Pentheroudakis