The initial design for the new Paul Ecke Central School has embraced a “school in a garden” concept, fitting for a school named for a legendary local who perfected the poinsettia plant.
The rebuild of Encinitas Union School District’s oldest 100-year-old school will include classrooms filled with natural light opening up into outdoor learning and collaboration spaces. It will be a campus centered on all things green with natural landscapes and play areas, and multiple garden experiences winding through the school from pollinator and vermiculture gardens to a quiet garden. The design by DLR Group Architecture was created with the community’s local roots in mind, down to reserving a space for the Sunday Farmers Market.
“As someone who grew up in Cardiff, I feel a strong connection to the broader Encinitas community, and especially to the unique spirit of Leucadia—with its deep ties to nature, creativity and surf culture,” said Brian Leonard, principal architect with DLR. “As an architect passionate about designing schools, it’s both a joy and a privilege to help reimagine a campus that reflects and enriches this community. This project is about honoring our shared past by creating a place of learning that opens pathways for new generations to the future.”
The Encinitas Union School District board got its first look at the design at a June special meeting as they work toward starting construction next year and welcoming students in 2027.
The initial design renderings for the new Paul Ecke Central School in the Encinitas Union School District. (Courtesy DLR Architecture)
“I am so happy (with the design) particularly because having sat in all the community sessions and listening to so many various community members… just hearing their hopes for what the school would look like and how it would function, I feel like DLR really hit it out of the park delivering what was presented and asked for,” said Superintendent Andrée Grey. “They really listened.”
The project, a long time coming, was made possible by the passage of Measure Z, a $158.3 million bond measure approved by the voters last fall. Originally, PEC was slated to be just an extensive modernization and not a full rebuild. But as the designs were being developed, there were so many problems that needed to be fixed it became clear the school needed a complete overhaul, Grey said.
The rebuild will aim to solve many of the outstanding campus issues such as undersized classrooms, underused space, and a big issue with the school’s plumbing.
“Traffic flow around there is horrendous, just trying to deal with pick up and drop up,” Grey said of the campus on the corner of Union Street and North Vulcan Avenue. There are just 36 parking spaces for 80 employees, meaning overflow parking into the surrounding neighborhood is often an issue.
During public input at the design sessions, the district heard the community’s desires for updated collaborative spaces, flexible learning inside and outside, playfields without bare spots, safe pathways to school, an integrated garden program, better parking lot efficiency, and a flexible and usable multipurpose room and library. There were calls to “Keep Leucadia funky” and to preserve traditions like the campus mosaics and bell tower.
With the proposed design, the new administration building and multi-purpose room will be on Vulcan Avenue with a single point of entry and a civic plaza on the corner. The parking lot will double in size to over 80 spaces and, in a major difference, the main pick up and drop off area for grades first through sixth will be on Vulcan Avenue with a separate kindergarten loop on Union. The kindergarten space is moving from the busy corner close to the train tracks and heavy traffic to its own, better-shielded back corner of the school, complete with its own playground.
The initial design renderings for the new Paul Ecke Central School in the Encinitas Union School District. (Courtesy DLR Architecture)
Another important design feature is improving the well-used thoroughfare from Orpheus Park and down to the El Portal undercrossing, creating an easier (and prettier) contiguous walking path right along the school perimeter.
While it’s still early on, Grey said so far the district has received strong support from the community and there is no organized opposition challenging the design.
The number of classrooms in the new Paul Ecke School will remain the same at 27. Encinitas, like all California school districts, has experienced declining enrollment and even with the anticipated growth of new dwelling units in the area, Grey said Paul Ecke is still projected to have about the same enrollment of 548 students. During the one-year construction, students are expected to be housed off-campus at El Camino Creek and Park Dale Lane.
DLR will continue its work refining the design and the board is expected to approve the final design this fall. Currently, the budget for the new school is set at $60 million.