SEE: Emerald High School Groundbreaking Ceremony

DUBLIN, CA — Dublin city and school officials gathered last week for a groundbreaking at the site of the future Emerald High School.

Emerald High would be Dublin Unified School District's second high school. It's set to open in the fall of 2022 to 1,300 students before expanding to accommodate a total of 2,500 students after the second phase of the project, according to DUSD.

The high school's name was chosen out of 260 suggestions, partly because it hearkened back to the city's Irish ties, the school board previously said. It will also be the only Emerald High School in California and the second in the country.

Plans for the new high school come amid a period of substantial growth in the district. Enrollment has tripled over the past decade from roughly 4,300 students in the 2009/2010 school year to 12,700 students in the 2019/2020 school year.

Other Tri-Valley schools have seen a fraction of that growth. Enrollment has grown by 11 percent at San Ramon Valley Unified School District, eight percent at Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District and a half-percent at Pleasanton Unified School District, according to DUSD.

Last year, the Dublin Unified School District Board of Trustees agreed to shell out $38 million for a privately owned 23-acre lot, located between Central Parkway and Dublin Boulevard, to serve as the site for the new school.

The $259 campus will include a theater, aquatic complex, performing arts classrooms, kitchen, academic towers, student gathering area, eight tennis courts, a football field with stadium bleachers and concessions, and more. Construction is funded by two bond measures passed in the past four years, according to DUSD.