SAN MARCOS — The San Marcos Unified School District is refining plans for various school rehabilitation projects using funds from the Measure JJ bond passed by voters last fall, with some planned to begin in the coming months.
District voters passed the $324 million Measure JJ bond in November, assessing a property tax levy of approximately $40 per $100,000 to fund needed facility updates, including the replacement of portable classrooms and campus reconstruction.
The district is currently preparing to sell the first series of bonds, which will yield approximately $149 million to be allocated for various projects.
Major projects that the bond will fund are campus renovations at Woodland Park Middle School and Paloma and Knob Hill elementary schools, as well as athletic facility improvements at Mission Hills High School and San Marcos High School.
Woodland Park is the district’s highest-need school site in terms of facilities, with a campus built in 1975. The $105 million renovation project will include the modernization and replacement of existing buildings, the replacement of portables with permanent structures, and an overall site reconfiguration.
Because the school site was originally adapted from an elementary school, the project will focus on adding a student quad and co-labs that are more suited to a middle school, staff said.
“We want to make sure that when we revamp the school, we give it new life — a new persona, if you will — and so this is gonna be the new school. We don’t want it to look like an elementary, we want to really make sure it has a place,” Executive Director of Facilities Tova Corman told the school board on May 22.
The renovation is expected to begin later this fall, pending approval of the designs from the Division of the State Architect.

The $94 million Knob Hill project and the $77 million Paloma Elementary project will both include site reconfiguration and the replacement of existing campus buildings, including portable classrooms.
Next month, the district will begin grading the Knob Hill site and prepare interim housing for students to be relocated during construction.
District leaders were originally hoping to kick off the Paloma Elementary project next year. However, because construction costs for the Knob Hill and Woodland Park projects came in higher than previous estimates, work at Paloma will likely be delayed until the summer of 2028 after more bonds have been sold.
“We don’t want to start the project until we’re sure we can pay for it,” Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Erin Garcia said.
The athletics projects at Mission Hills and San Marcos high schools will feature sitewide improvements, with the Mission Hills project set to begin in May and is budgeted at around $13.5 million.
Mission Hills’ stadium will receive new artificial turf and a synthetic track, and the current grass practice field will be converted to artificial turf with the addition of field lights. The school’s existing tennis courts will be replaced with eight new post-tension concrete courts, and three beach volleyball courts will be created.
Measure JJ funds will also be used to purchase four acres of land in North City, directly adjacent to another lot purchased by the district for $12.5 million earlier this year. Although the district has not announced plans for the land, it has been proposed as a possible site for a future school.
As a result of passing the bond, San Marcos Unified is also eligible for millions of dollars in matching funds from the state under Proposition 2. Some of the projects are also being funded by sources such as redevelopment funds and community facilities district funds.
Another major ongoing project is the replacement of drainage, turf and asphalt at Carrillo Elementary School, which began in March. The $12.7 million project is funded by redevelopment and CFD dollars, and is not funded by Measure JJ.
The project involves replacing all above- and below-ground drainage, replacing existing fields with artificial turf mounted on an external drain system, adding retention seat walls and shade structures, and implementing new asphalt play areas, including ball walls, basketball infrastructure, and tetherball poles.