OCEANSIDE — Several buildings across the Oceanside Unified School District are undergoing significant renovations and reconstruction over the next few years, including multiple campuses, the district office and an upcoming operations center project.
Work is underway at Pablo Tac School of the Arts, with completion expected by the end of October. The campus has undergone extensive modernization at the former San Luis Rey Elementary School site, following the relocation of students from Garrison Elementary there when that school closed in 2019.
Surfside Academy, formerly Ditmar School, and Jefferson Middle School are also in full modernization phases involving complete teardowns and rebuilds.
New structures are being built on vacant areas of both campuses while students remain in existing classrooms, which will be demolished once the new facilities are ready. At Surfside, the first phase — including the administration building and eight classrooms — is slated for completion this spring, according to district officials.
Both the Surfside and Jefferson projects are expected to finish in 2027.
The district is also planning a full rebuild of North Terrace, a K-8 campus on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
The school projects are funded by voter-approved Proposition H and Measure W bonds.
Approved in 2008, Proposition H authorized up to $195 million in general obligation bonds for school facility upgrades, allowing the district to continue work started under Proposition G. Measure W, passed in 2020, added up to $160 million for additional facility and grounds improvements.
Developer impact fees and property sale revenues are funding reconstruction of the district office, a $25 million project, and the operations center, estimated at $30 million.
Work on the new two-story district office, located on the same parcel as the existing one, is expected to wrap up early next year, with move-in anticipated in March. The current building will be demolished to make way for parking.
The district also submitted plans to rebuild its operations center across Mission Avenue and has been coordinating with city staff to advance the project.
“We’ve had a couple of meetings with the engineering department to go over the plans,” said Associate Superintendent of Business Services Todd McAteer. “They were able to give us city codes and requirements for permitting, and what they’d like to see in the final build. We worked with the architect, going back and forth with proposals, and will have a formal, final submission in December.”
The operations center houses maintenance and operations, transportation, warehouse, nutrition and educational support services in a “smattering of buildings” on the 7.7-acre site, which also includes a print shop.
According to a city application submitted in September, the current facility “no longer meets the capacity, safety, or operational standards required to effectively serve district schools,” and is “outdated and undersized, limiting the district’s ability to deliver essential services efficiently and reliably.”
Existing buildings range from post-World War II-era quonset huts to structures built in the 1970s and 1990s.
The new complex will consolidate operations into four buildings, reducing its footprint. The educational support services department will move into the new district office.
The project calls for a 26-foot-tall, one-story, 7,288-square-foot maintenance and operations building with workshops and offices; a 20-foot-tall, one-story, 7,893-square-foot building with offices, a training room, print shop and support spaces; a 34-foot-tall, one-story, 14,475-square-foot warehouse with racking and cold storage; and a 32-foot-tall, one-story, 8,615-square-foot transportation building with dispatch, driver facilities, maintenance bays and support areas.
Additional site work will include new parking, loading docks, pedestrian walkways, fencing, landscaping, utilities, photovoltaic structures, trash enclosures, biofiltration basins and lighting.
Like the district office project, construction will take place on a separate portion of the property while existing buildings remain in use. Once complete, staff will relocate, and the old structures will be demolished.
McAteer said both projects will improve efficiency and save the district money over time.
The upgrades will also benefit employees and enhance the city’s appearance, he said.
“We’re excited to modernize workspaces for a lot of our employees,” McAteer said. “At the same time, it’s also a beautification for the city. These are going to be architecturally well-designed buildings. We’re also doing landscaping work, so the full projects are going to look very nice all around the city.”
OUSD Director of Communications Donald Bendz said the district prioritized its school sites first.
“All of our campuses will be updated and modernized in some way,” he said.
Bendz added that district staff also deserve better working environments.
“Many of our employees who have been here for decades – some who even went to school here – deserve these modern spaces,” he said.
