Poway Unified Explores Creating New K-8 Campus

The Poway Unified School District on Tuesday began a three-day design symposium for a possible new school—likely a K-8—to help ease overcrowding on the northwest side of the district in the 2014-15 school year.

The brainstorming session brought together district officials, architects, construction team members and students from Del Norte High School, which lies just south of the 22-acre site for the new school at the corner of Lone Quail Road and Camino del Norte by 4S Ranch and Black Mountain Ranch.

The goal is to build a forward-thinking educational environment —"not just an old school on a new campus," in the words of Bill Chiment, the district's associate superintendent of personnel support services who was part of Tuesday's symposium.

The PUSD board in August approved spending up to $2 million from the Community Facilities District fund on architectural design services from BakerNowicki Design Studio, which includes participation in a series of community and district design symposiums like the one underway. Another $500,000 was approved for a pre-construction agreement with Echo Pacific Construction, which will work alongside BakerNowicki in the development process. Eventually, the district could negotiate a lease-leaseback agreement with Echo Pacific Construction.

By uniting the artchitects and construction team this early in the process, district officials hope to have a smoother project with fewer cost overruns.

It's not guaranteed that the district will build a new school and a budget has not been finalized, but it is likely and has been deemed necessary due to crowding in elementary schools. The campus is likely to be a K-8 with on-site preschool, officials said, a plan which appeared to have the support of Tuesday's symposium attendees.

Over the three-day symposium, which wraps up Thursday afternoon, attendees will particpate in breakout sessions for staff from different departments and programs, such as special education, to determine what they need in a new campus. On Tuesday, small groups generated initial ideas for the campus.

Some of their ideas:

• Incorporate solar/renewable energy and natural lighting.
• Easy access to recycling containers.
• Integrated electives between grade levels.
• Accelerated learning classes that allow students to access higher-level courses, regardless of grade level.
• Enable older students to tutor younger students.
• Schoolwide science program.
• Community garden.
• Move away from wired systems; incorporate Wi-Fi.
• Cyber cafés instead of libraries.
• "Productivity rooms" set aside for meetings.
• Provide student-centered technology, instead of having computers and equipment only available to teachers.
• North-facing outdoor amphitheatre.
• Flexible learning spaces that can serve different purposes throughout the day.

Some of the concerns:

• Traffic congestion and safety of younger kids near teen drivers.
• Start times for the different schools/grade levels—should they be staggered?
• Will the campus be able to offer the full range of extracurricular activites for all students?
• Design of the drop-off zone: How to accomodate parents who want to walk young children to class, and older students who can't get out of the car fast enough?
• It's difficult to know what technology needs students will have in the future.
• How much space should be devoted to print materials in the library?