DEL MAR — Officials in the Del Mar Union School District are reevaluating costs and the use of bond funds after grappling with multimillion-dollar price increases for two major projects.
In recent school board discussions, officials said the cost of the ongoing Del Mar Heights School rebuild has increased by around $5 million after major delays due to litigation and that the planned Del Mar Hills Academy modernization project could be as much as $6 million over budget.
The board begrudgingly approved new costs for the Del Mar Heights rebuild at its June 21 meeting, completing an updated lease-leaseback agreement with contractor Balfour Beatty Construction.
A group of community members called Save the Field filed their lawsuit in mid-2020, calling for the preservation of open space within the district’s boundaries. An injunction in the case was lifted in March, and construction resumed on the rebuild immediately afterward.
The price tag had already risen to around $66 million as of early 2022, with the additional bump now bringing it north of $70 million.
“It is what it is; it’s disappointing. This is kind of what we were talking about all through the process — as litigation is occurring, we knew costs would increase, and we’re reaping the results of that now. It’s unfortunate for the community,” Board President Gee Wah Mok said.
Del Mar Heights students have been at Ocean Air Elementary and Del Mar Hills since 2020. The new estimated completion date for the rebuild is May 2024.
In the face of climbing expenses for the Del Mar Hills modernization project, district leaders are planning to engage with the school’s community about the possibility of moving students off campus for the duration of the work to cut costs.
The modernization effort will include removing the school’s portables, enhancing the classrooms to provide natural daylight, replacing some concrete walls and adding a lunch shelter, among other improvements.
At the board’s May 24 meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Chris Delehanty said the original $20 million cost is now expected to be over $26 million. The increased cost is largely due to the addition of needed seismic retrofitting work, in addition to delays from the Del Mar Heights litigation.
Work was originally planned to be completed in phases while students are on campus. Delehanty said the district could cut costs down to $23 million if students are moved fully off campus since the work could take place more continuously.
“It’s gonna be more expensive to construct with students onsite,” Delehanty said.
However, he admitted that bussing the displaced students to a new school location and accommodating them at that site would likely cost the district an additional $500,000 to $1 million.
Board members preferred to wait to make any decisions about whether to keep kids on or off campus and requested that the Del Mar Hills community be involved in the discussion.
“I don’t feel like this is fair to our Del Mar Hills community. We have to inform them that they have the potential to be losing a lot here,” said Trustee Katherine Fitzpatrick.
Delehanty said another way to bring costs down would be to eliminate the planned classroom improvements, but that this would likely be an unpopular option for the community.
“It does concern me to go over budget, but it also concerns me to strip it down to no improvements in the classroom because then we’re looking at a project that really isn’t going to impact the kids as much,” Delehanty said.
Going forward, district leaders hope to finalize the costs for Del Mar Hills in time to submit plans to the Division of the State Architect by early 2024 to avoid costs rising even more.
The district will also hold a new bond workshop in the coming months to provide a larger overview of Measure MM funds and whether all planned projects are still possible with the rise in construction costs.
Of the original $186 million bond passed in 2018, around $80 million in funds remain, Delehanty said.
