Mesa View Middle School in Huntington Beach next up for $27-million modernization work

The Ocean View School District is ready for its next school modernization project.

The district held a groundbreaking ceremony for the renovation of Mesa View Middle School in Huntington Beach on Monday.

Improvements to the campus, which officials estimated will total $27 million, will include a single point of entry to the school. Video cameras and a touch button control will allow access into the office when school begins.

Entryway arches will be a highlight of the modernization, OVSD Board of Trustees President Patricia Singer said.

“We’re really excited,” Singer said. “The decorative arches are going to be really a welcoming entry for all students as they walk through the campus. Obviously, there will be a single point of entry to ensure the kids are safe at all times, but I think just completely redesigning the space with an open concept will be really great.”

A rendering of the front of Mesa View Middle School following the completion of modernization construction.

(Courtesy of Ocean View School District)

A redesigned front office will afford a view of the student lunch area, which itself will be upgraded with a permanent shade shelter.

Mesa View will also have a newly designed multipurpose/food service facility for students, as well as hallway access to classrooms.

“Currently, they don’t have that,” Singer said. “I think that’s going to be a welcoming new setting for the kiddos, bringing more natural light into the classrooms.”

Permanent heating and air-conditioning systems will also be a part of the upgraded technology, along with new carpeting, painting, electrical systems and lighting, Supt. Michael Conroy said.

“There’s no change to the building envelope,” Conroy said. “Everything is on the inside.”

However, Conroy noted that the parking lot entryway will be redesigned, including sprucing up the community garden.

Ocean View School District Supt. Michael Conroy, left, pictured with Board of Trustees President Patricia Singer, Clerk Jack Souders and Vice-President Gina Clayton-Tarvin at Monday’s ceremony.

(Courtesy of Ocean View School District)

Mesa View’s modernization is scheduled to be complete by the fall of 2024. This school year, the Mesa View students and faculty will be at the interim site, which was formerly Sun View Elementary.

The Mesa View improvements will mark the sixth Ocean View School District school to be modernized through Measure R, the $169-million bond passed by voters in 2016.

“This is the next one, and we’re excited because this is one of our largest middle schools that our GATE kids attend,” Singer said.

The district is planning a reopening ceremony for Star View Elementary, which was modernized last school year, in September.

There are currently no other OVSD schools on the scheduled modernization list, but Singer said that could change depending on how much Measure R money is left and whether the district will be forced to close schools due to declining enrollment. A superintendent’s schools task force continues to meet regularly, with recommendations on possible school closures to be presented to the board at its Oct. 24 meeting.

“It’s not necessarily the last Measure R project,” Singer said. “There are still some Measure R funds left, we just have to figure out exactly how much that would be and what we would be doing next with it.”