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With its deep trenches, vast piles of dirt, heavy construction equipment in use, and layers of fencing, what was a large section of the parking lot at San Juan School is now the most visible sign of a campus in transition.
Looking through the old entrance gates, there is no sign of two of the wings of classrooms that were demolished and removed during the summer break. Students follow a maze of chain-link corridors that mark the pathways around debris and the workers as they journey from the few remaining buildings.
“The kids who have been here are certainly aware of the disruption,” Principal Ethan Stocks said. “Those just starting might not fully conceive of what is happening or why. But the students have been extremely resilient. I haven’t seen anybody miss a step.”
Stocks and the students are looking at approximately two years of construction, to be completed in two phases by fall 2027, when the new and reimagined campus will emerge at the end like a butterfly from a chrysalis.
According to a presentation on the project made by Aromas-San Juan Unified School District Superintendent Barbara Dill-Varga before the San Juan City Council on Aug. 19, the first phase, besides the demolition and site prep work, will include the construction of new modular classrooms, which are expected to be ready by April or May for installation.
The current administration building will also be demolished; the new offices will be finished by the start of school in August 2026.
Stocks said a one-year delay in construction helped prepare the students for the current classroom configuration. Anticipating the work to begin during the 2024 summer break, Stocks said the campus had been reconfigured by the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.
“We consolidated all of our classes into two buildings not yet planned for demolition,” he said, “so all that movement already happened, and the teachers have been in these temporary spaces for a year already.”
The reshuffling, Stocks said, has been successful enough not to require any portables to be brought in, which saves on the expense of the project. And the trade-off for the 10 demolished classrooms, Stocks said, was minimal.
“They weren’t moving from a large classroom into some tiny setting,” Stocks said. “They mainly were one-for-one trades. And I think the students are mostly comfortable in these rooms and with the changes.”
One of the bigger challenges is the loss of the school’s playground, which is located in an area that would be too hazardous for students to be near. Planning ahead, Stocks said the district purchased portable basketball hoops for use on the pickleball courts along with other play equipment.
“The pickleball courts are a great contained space for kids to play,” Stocks said. “Get a supervisor out there with them, and it works great. I want kids to be occupied, and I want their recreation time to be valuable for them.”
Much to the consternation of the avid pickleball devotees in the area, Dill-Varga said the courts will remain closed to the public until the construction is finished. The construction work might also occasionally limit the public’s use of the soccer field and the adjoining parking lot.
Besides replacing the remaining classrooms, Dill-Varga said that the second phase of construction will also see the school’s core buildings demolished and reimagined with a new kitchen focused on farm–to-table cooking, a new library that will include a maker space and robotics, and a new multi-use room that will have roll-up doors to allow it to be used as a theatrical production space.
Dill-Varga identified Measure O, passed in 2020, as the primary funding source for the work being done at San Juan School. Additional support, she said, came from Measure D, passed in the 2024 election.
Stocks said the school is devoting considerable time and resources to help the students understand the changes going on around them.
“We let them know it might be uncomfortable now,” he said, “but it’s going to have this reward. I think we are getting to a place where students, regardless of age, recognize that this is an opportunity and, at the end, we’re all going to be better for it.”
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