DEL MAR — Teachers, students and families celebrated the long-awaited reopening of Del Mar Heights Elementary School on Tuesday as students arrived on campus for the first day of the 2024-25 school year.
It’s been a lengthy journey to this point, with the Del Mar Union School District facing several roadblocks in rebuilding the K-6 school over the past four years. The project was originally planned to be completed in the 2020-21 school year, but it was delayed due to litigation from local nonprofit Save the Field.
The district then hoped to finish by May 2023, but an injunction granted in Save the Field’s lawsuit halted construction for 10 months. Work on the site resumed in the spring of 2023 and was largely finished by July.
In the meantime, Del Mar Heights families have been split between Del Mar Hills Academy and Ocean Air School since 2020 and have been eagerly awaiting their return to the campus. Students arriving Tuesday morning carried flowers for their teachers and posed for first-day-of-school pictures in front of the Heights sign.
“It’s a good homecoming for everybody,” said Heights principal Jenny Peirson.
The new, modern campus features spacious classrooms with sliding glass doors, dynamic layouts and technology such as TVs and touch screens, as well as large communal areas for interconnected learning.
An expansive multi-use room comprises one end of the campus, containing a stage with a view of the Torrey Pines State Natural Preserve, classrooms for music, science and art, and an innovation center for the school’s library and a maker’s space.
The school buildings encircle a central outdoor play area with two new playgrounds for younger and older children — which students and families helped design — and a new field overlooking the ocean.
This field, and its reduction in size during the rebuild, was a main point of conflict during the redesign and planning process.
“Despite all the talk, I feel like it’s a good size. I think it’ll be well used and well loved as we open it up to the community,” said DMUSD Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Chris Delehanty.
The new campus also incorporates elements from the old Heights school, such as the old El Camino Real bell and serpent mosaic and a new, small garden.
Some Heights families have never been to the home campus, having only known the portable classrooms at Del Mar Hills and Ocean Air. Many were in awe of the brand-new, modern buildings.
“It’s fantastic. We’ve only been in the portables for the Heights,” third-grade parent Jessica Phillips said on Tuesday.
Litigation delays increased costs for the Heights rebuild significantly, from the original $45 million price tag to around $76 million. Funds came from the district’s Measure MM.
In addition to its own students, Del Mar Heights is also hosting Hills students in grades K-3 as their own campus undergoes modernization, returning the favor from the past four years. Hills students in grades 4-6 are being hosted at Ashley Falls School.
Work on the approximately $23 million project began in the summer and is expected to take around one year. Crews will remove the school’s portables, enhance the classrooms to provide natural daylight, replace some concrete walls and add a lunch shelter, among other improvements.
DMUSD leaders said they are looking forward to the memories that will be made at the campus by students and the community at large. There is a grass area at the front of the school, as well as a new path that follows the edge of the canyon.
“The rebuild creates a new community hub that will be accessible outside of the school day and provide the whole neighborhood with space to learn, gather, and play,” the district said in a statement.
In 2022, the district also opened the newly constructed Pacific Sky School in the Pacific Highlands neighborhood using Measure MM funds.
