DEL SUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
By Blanca Gonzalez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 7, 2007
Most malls are built for shopping, not learning. But the future Del Sur Elementary is designed as a two-story, enclosed-mall- type school to serve the fast-growing area west of Rancho Bernardo.
It's now just a steel skeleton of a building amid an expanse of dirt. But by next fall, students will start classes at a $29.5 million campus that combines the old-fashioned "schoolhouse" concept with modern design for energy efficiency.
Students will walk through the school entrance to get to their classrooms, much like shoppers enter Escondido's Westfield North County mall to get to the stores inside. Classroom doors in the Spanish-style building open to indoor corridors, and natural light comes through windows above the top floor.
The design is the first of its kind in the Poway Unified School District and was the result of a weeklong symposium several years ago that brought together teachers, staff members, parents and architects. Teachers said they preferred a village concept so that all classrooms were more closely linked.
Instead of several buildings spread out on a typical California school campus, all learning areas are under one roof. The exception is kindergarten classrooms, which are connected but separate. All lower grades are on the first floor, and only older students will be in the second-floor classrooms.
The setup means better security, energy efficiency and more interaction among students and staffers, district officials said. Also, by going up instead of out, the campus has more fields and open space for outdoor play and activities.
The school's architect, Rich Nowicki of NTD Architecture, said it was designed to fit in with the surrounding community and its California Spanish architecture. Del Sur's "front yard" is on the street, not behind a parking lot as with most Poway Unified schools.
While two-story, indoor school designs are common on the East Coast, such schools are rare in Southern California.
"It's not your standard design," said Fred Yeager of the state Department of Education.
Many districts are trying to create more friendly environments where students feel more comfortable, and a mall setting may fit the bill, said Yeager, assistant director of the school facilities planning division.
Security has been a growing concern among parents nationwide, and district officials said the enclosed, compact design means easier lockdowns and more control over who goes in or out.
The 10-acre campus in the still-developing Del Sur community of Black Mountain Ranch will eventually serve 800 students. Classrooms will be outfitted with state-of-the-art technology, including interactive whiteboards that allow teachers to customize and use text, images and Web content for everyday lessons.
The whiteboards are connected to a computer and a projector and allow an entire class to watch as a teacher pulls up video clips or other information from the Web to illustrate a lesson.
About 200 students will attend when Del Sur Elementary opens in August 2008. The campus also will serve as a temporary site for about 400 Willow Grove Elementary students.
Willow Grove will open on the Del Sur campus because its school in the Santa Luz area, northwest of Rancho Peñasquitos, won't be ready until January 2009.