Two 4S Ranch campuses to get new classrooms

When Stone Ranch Elementary students return to their 4S Ranch campus next month, they will find a new classroom building plus a new playground area.

The building will feature 19 classrooms, which replace the 19 classrooms in temporary portable buildings the school has been using for the past several years, according to Chad Koster, Poway Unified’s director of facilities, maintenance and operations.

Construction on the new building, on the north side of the campus in a former grassy area near a hill, has been going on for more than a year, Koster said.

“The project really does allow us to get rid of all the 19 portables ... and into a permanent space,” he said, adding the project does not add capacity to the school that serves around 1,200 students.

The portables were on the south side of the campus, which will be converted to a new playground space. Work on that began this week and is slated to be completed by the first day of school on Aug. 22. It includes repairs to the asphalt playground and grass field, relocation of a basketball court plus addition of a slurry coat and new striping in the playground asphalt areas.

Koster said the project was approved by the school board around three years ago and executed in three phases over the last two years. The first phase included cutting into the hill, installing a retaining wall and doing underground work. The second — soon to be completed — was constructing the building. The third — starting this week — is removing the portables and restoring the playground.

“It’s going to be really nice,” Koster said. While there will be no additional classrooms, the building will be “much nicer” since it will have collaborative spaces and more area for the students and teachers to work.

Construction is also being planned for Oak Valley Middle School in 4S Ranch. At the PUSD board’s June 28 meeting, the board unanimously approved a contract with HMC Architects.

Koster said the district’s plan is to add four temporary portable classrooms to the campus in response to the campus’ growing student population until a permanent building can be constructed.

According to a report given to the board last month, Oak Valley’s enrollment has continued to rise and currently exceeds the school’s optimum facility capacity of 1,354 students. At the conclusion of the 2017-18 school year in June, there were 1,460 students in sixth to eighth grade and projections are for a peak enrollment of 1,547 students by the 2022-23 school year.

The district’s goal is to construct a single-story four-classroom building. “In a perfect world, we would start construction next summer at an area on campus in its original design that allowed for an addition,” Koster said. That space is in the campus’ northwest corner, which is currently a grassy area.

The portables are to be located nearby, on the campus’ north edge. “Ideally, we will have them by January, to allow time for development of a permanent solution,” he said.

The Stone Ranch portables were rented, but they will not be the ones installed at Oak Valley. Koster said a new rental will be contracted for Oak Valley and the Stone Ranch buildings returned to their owner.

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