The Chula Vista Elementary School District is adding a new school to its roster to relieve student overcrowding at some of the campuses on the east side.
The district that’s home to 30,000 students is set to break ground on school No. 46 in the Otay Ranch Village 2 area next April, with plans of opening as a year-round school in July 2017.
With more housing projects being developed in Otay Ranch, the Chula Vista Elementary School District will need to accommodate more students.
“It’s all based on growth,” said Oscar Esquivel, assistant superintendent of business services and support, about the addition of a new school.
The school is tentatively called School No. 46 because that will be the number of schools in the district. Giving the school an official name will be one of the last things the district does after the school is built, Esquivel said.
School No. 46 will join Camarena Elementary School, which opened in 2013, as the newest schools in the district.
It is estimated that School No. 46 will cost about $48 million with the purchase of the 10.3 acres the school will sit on. Esquivel said the school will be fully financed by Mello-Roos money. Esquivel anticipates having some of that money reimbursed if a state bond is approved next November.
Esquivel said 14 schools in the district were built by Mello-Roos funds.
School No. 46 will be a two-story school with 36 classrooms, including a multi-purpose room.
The school will house up to 800 students and 36 teachers.
Development for the school started about a year and a half ago. An architectural team and a construction crew visited newer elementary schools in San Diego County and Southern California to look at school designs, lighting, architectural landscaping concepts and different energy efficiency ideas to possibly incorporate in designing School No. 46.
Chula Vista Elementary School District spokesman Anthony Millican said School No. 46 would be vastly different from 2-year-old Camarena Elementary School.
“This one is special,” Millican said about the design. “It’s truly going to be a model for our other schools.”
School No. 46 will have fewer hard structures like big cabinet units. Instead it will have more movable storage spaces. Technology used by teachers and students will be accessed from any point in a classroom rather than a set area.
Many classrooms will have a large open window that administrators and visiting teachers can look into as they are walking in the halls without disrupting classrooms.
Millican said the idea for the school academically is to be innovative and creative and really build an environment for academic collaboration and creativity.
It is not yet known if the school will have a specialty such as being a visual and performing arts school or a science, technology engineering and math school. Millican said public discussions with the community will be held to decide on the academic desires.
Whatever the academic model will be, Millican is convinced that it will be one of the top K-6 schools out there.
“I believe it is going to be as good and second to none of any private school in the community, especially an elementary,” Millican said.
