DEL MAR — The San Dieguito Union High School District has checked off the last needed box to proceed with its first-ever pool at Torrey Pines High School.
Construction is set to begin in late July or early August.
On June 13, the district board of trustees approved a guaranteed maximum price of approximately $19.3 million in response to bids for the aquatics center project. A total of $21.3 million has been budgeted for the pool to account for other costs like testing and inspections, maintenance and architect and engineer fees.
Construction of the 37-meter outdoor pool and two buildings containing team rooms, locker rooms, offices, storage, and concessions is expected to be completed between December 2025 and January 2026. The facility will be located at the eastern edge of the Torrey Pines campus, south of the stadium.
The approval was welcome news to SDUHSD aquatics athletes and families, who have been pleading for decades for the district to pursue an on-campus pool. Athletes currently have to practice at other locations, often early in the morning and late at night and sometimes at great distances.
“I believe this is the right time to move forward and build this pool at Torrey, and hopefully this is the first of many. We want this to be a success, and we know the district can benefit from this directly, not just the students, but the community overall,” said Marc Alldredge, whose son plays water polo at San Dieguito Academy.
The pool is the third and final phase of the larger Torrey Pines Athletic Facilities Improvement Project, which also included renovations to the two athletic fields and tennis courts, repairs to amenities at the school’s softball fields in response to Title IX complaints, and modernizations to the locker rooms.
The total project will cost the district just under $40 million, all paid through Fund 40, composed of reimbursement funds that can only go toward capital projects. These withdrawals will leave Fund 40 nearly depleted, with a balance of around $1 million.
District officials said costs for the pool project have risen dramatically in the past year and will continue to rise with further delay. While funding the pool means pulling money from other potential projects, Board President Rimga Viskanta said she believes it is the right decision to make.
“There are always trade-offs. There are some sports teams we have with very few members, and we put a lot of money in so they have a place to play their sport, and to me, the timing for this pool is right,” Viskanta said. “With everything I’ve seen, I’m in full confidence of supporting this pool tonight.”
Trustees approved the maximum price in a 4-1 vote, with Katrina Young opposed. Young cited financial concerns about the project, estimating that hundreds of thousands more dollars would need to come out of the General Fund to support overhead costs and noting that deferred maintenance needs are growing in the district.
She also said that the district does not appear to be able to fulfill its promise to provide a pool in the north end of the district.
“I unfortunately, with a grave heart, am not going to be supporting this project,” Young said.
Young’s dissenting vote elicited criticism from trustees Michael Allman and Phan Anderson, who have repeatedly accused Young and other trustees of not being fully committed to the pool.
“I’m so disappointed that’s the legacy you’re gonna be leaving behind,” said Anderson.
The longstanding San Dieguito Pool Feasibility Committee is supporting fundraising for another pool in the north end of the district. Committee representatives said last week that they are working hard on a fundraising prospectus and are seeking partners for the campaign.
Trustee Jane Lea Smith said while she wishes the district had gotten to work pursuing pools back when aquatics programs first began, the current board now has to work with the situation.
“We are where we are, so I’m moving forward based on where we are and the information that we have,” Smith said.
Budget and funding
Despite the ongoing lack of funds for other improvements, district officials said the district is projecting a positive budget certification in 2024-25 and is likely to see more stable funding going forward.
According to Associate Superintendent of Business Services Stephen Dickinson, the district’s potential revenue from property taxes is projected to exceed what it would receive in state funding. With this shift, SDUHSD will become a community-funded district, also known as a basic aid district, instead of a Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) district.
This means that next year, the district will see a funding increase of around 5.9% based on property taxes, compared to the just over 1% cost of living adjustment for LCFF districts proposed by the governor in his May revision of the education budget.
Dickinson said property tax revenue is a more reliable source of funding because, unlike state education funding provided through LCFF, it is not impacted by decreased enrollment. SDUHSD is projected to lose around 200 students in each of the next three years.
“In LCFF, you lose the revenue for those 200 students. In community funded, the enrollment is not part of the factors for the revenue. It simply is the property tax revenue that is received into the district,” Dickinson said.
Despite the long-term benefits, Dickinson warned that the transition to a community-funded district would also result in the loss of other state funding in the near term. The district is projecting deficit spending of around $6.5 million this year, which is expected to decrease to around $3.2 million in 2025-26 and improve even further in 2026-27 to a surplus of around $2.8 million.
“Transitioning into community funded doesn’t just happen all at once. There are some sources we lose,” he said. “We will need to be patient and conservative for a couple of years until this balances out.”
The district also has around $10 million in one-time restricted funds from the COVID-19 pandemic that must be spent by 2028. These include Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) dollars and educator effectiveness, arts/music/instructional materials and learning recovery funds.
“There’s deficit spending going on, but I want us to pause and appreciate a couple of times here that we’re approving a positive certification without huge budget reductions that may or may not include layoffs, that may or may not include reductions to services to our students,” Dickinson said.
The district’s proposed budget is set to be adopted on June 20.
