The lot at Vulcan and Union is quiet. The buildings are gone. Paul Ecke Central’s 520 students are bused to temporary campuses while permitting for the rebuild remains stalled. We, the parents and neighbors behind PEC ♥ ASAP, ask the Encinitas Union School District and the city of Encinitas to find a way forward and get our kids home.
Ninety-nine years ago, it was named “Central School.” Its founders couldn’t have foreseen the community now bustling around it.
PEC anchors a pedestrian- and bike-friendly neighborhood where community feels tangible. Central is still central. Mornings bring a parade of bikes, scooters and small feet. Afternoons send backpacks spilling onto the 101 toward shops often owned by PEC families. The school feeds the neighborhood, and the neighborhood feeds the school. Local businesses lose when our families can no longer stop at Pannikin for a pre-drop-off croissant or Numbskulls for an after-school treat.
Encinitas should guard its small-town character. But a public school is not a for-profit midrise apartment building or shopping center. It deserves nuance. Scrutiny by reviewing bodies was bound to require revisions, but from the outset, this project called for creativity and flexibility between the city it was born into and the district rebuilding it.
In November 2024, voters across the community passed Measure Z. The people voted yes, knowing taxes would rise because our schools are worth it. The bond is a fixed number; construction costs are not. If litigation encumbers the project, costs multiply, and it’s not the city’s or the district’s money. It’s neighbors paying twice.
Three school communities carry this directly: 520 PEC students and more than 700 at the host schools of El Camino Creek and Park Dale Lane.
This is not a greenfield site. It’s a century-old campus that predates most of Leucadia’s urban planning. Serving another century means reconciling a complex, somewhat contradictory program.
The architect had to preserve the historic schoolhouse, maximize play areas and gardens, remain single-story to protect sightlines, enlarge classrooms, house a returning Leucadia Farmers Market and fit it all on a site 71% smaller than the state’s recommended size for an elementary school. The architectural language also needed to “Keep Leucadia Funky.”
Future neighborhood needs claim scarce inches, too: Vulcan Avenue, the frontage road, will someday widen. Handled well, that constraint becomes an asset for 60,000 Encinitas residents. The campus and a widened Vulcan can coexist, but on a site bursting at the seams, that takes careful, nontraditional implementation.
Cities and districts resolve these conflicts through variances and conditions of approval, tools that give the city real discretion. That isn’t overlooking safety; it’s ordinary permitting, especially for a historic school in one of Encinitas’ oldest neighborhoods.
The construction documents cleared the Division of the State Architect, whose approval confirms the design meets California standards. That should reassure the public.
What remains are discretionary issues, some surfacing mid-review: right-of-way dedication, on-site drainage infiltration, queuing lanes and a legacy city easement. None are insurmountable, but each requires the district and city to meet halfway. Communication seems to have broken down. As a community, we must urge collaboration again. This sets the tone for what two public bodies can do for 60,000 residents.
An August 2027 reopening can’t happen, but we can still complete the rebuild before the 2027-28 school year ends. The architect and contractor were chosen partly for delivering similar rebuilds in 14 months. With demolition complete, shovels must be in the ground by November 2026 for that to happen.
A record El Niño is forecast, putting crews at a disadvantage. We can’t control the weather, but the city controls when it issues permits and conducts inspections.
PEC ♥ ASAP issued a petition Sept. 26 calling on the city and district to fast-track remaining approvals, avoid litigation and get the rebuild moving. After 11 days, it approached 1,000 signatures. Our families want our school back. No one is pointing fingers.
Please turn the page, step back from litigation, come to the table, grant reasonable variances, make this everyone’s highest priority and get shovels in the ground.
Paul Ecke Central is the center of our community. Help us bring it back.
PEC ♥ ASAP is a local effort to fast-track the reconstruction of Paul Ecke Central Elementary School. The following members signed this commentary: Agatha Borrelli, David Larson, Kelly Trigueros, Ted Boda, Angela Hicks, Michael Stone, Kelly Tagg, Tara Carson, Tracey Saenz, Luis Saenz, Adriana Camacho, Joanne Paek, Courtney Charpentier, Natalie Holm, Rosario Velasco, Kellye Vogel, Cristóbal Murillo, James Tagg, Sergi Bosch, Tiffany Turpin, Erica Fries, Curt Vogel, Kelly Zastrow, Nick Borrelli, Travis Charpentier, Nundhia Fraile, Roger A. Turpin, Gerald Foster, Kele Dobrinski, Christina Valencia, Justine Aylward, Jennifer Kososki, John Aylward, Ashlee Foster and Mariana Compagnone.
