In July 2025, the District confirmed that a complete rebuild of the middle school is no longer financially feasible. At the August 11, 2025 Community Forum, the District presented the following budget trajectory:
Sept. 2023: Board set a $130 million target budget.
Sept. 2024: Cost estimate increased by $22.6 million when pier foundations were replaced with deep soil mixing to address lateral spread and liquefaction.
Sept. 2024: “Value engineering” reduced project size to $134 million
June 2025: Additional $23 million in projected toxic soil removal costs identified.
July 2025: Budget ballooned to $156 million and project declared infeasible.
Aug. 2025: District began considering alternatives with a target budget of $95 million (for hard costs). On top of that, there is a $19.2M reserve for soil removal, soft costs, and a 10% contingency. Not clear what the total budget would be, but still likely near $130M.
Over a year before this, we encouraged the District to consider alternative plans, as we estimated soil mitigation would cost closer to $33M based on similar projects in San Diego. We warned, “This is a material budget concern, and the District needs to do soil samples and talk to DTSC about this as soon as possible, to avoid wasting bond funds in furtherance of a project that may not be economically viable as presently planned.” Our cost estimate proved spot-on.
You can see the archive for our discussion of this (search on the page for “Noah Webster Elementary” to find the relevant section).
Soil Mixing and Soil Removal Costs - Sure enough, site engineers determined that deep soil mixing would be required to stabilize the soil in this seismic liquefaction zone. That process involves injecting stabilizer into the soil, which then displaces large amounts of the underlying landfill waste. Since that waste is toxic, the Department of Toxic Substances Control would require it to be trucked out of state. The deep soil mixing added $9.4M, while the toxic soil removal added $23M, for a total soil mitigation cost of…$32.4M. Pretty close to the $33M we estimated, and much closer than the ~$7M the District had budgeted for soil mitigation.
So, Not Feasible - Based on advice from experts, the District has now determined that the demolition and rebuild plan is no longer financially feasible.
EIR Focuses on Discarded Project – Even though this plan has been discarded, 87% of the Draft EIR focuses on this infeasible project (242 pages), while allocating relatively few pages to the alternatives now under consideration (5.5 pages for Dual Schools at Edna and 3.5 pages for Renovation option). This misalignment underscores the inadequacy of the current environmental review and project planning.
Original Plan to Demolish and Rebuild Not Feasible
District Pivots to Consider Two Alternatives
The District is now targeting a total hard cost budget of $95M with two main alternatives under review:
New Alternative 1 - Renovate existing Middle School and temporarily relocate students
The District would add new fire sprinklers, new elevators, exterior upgrades, and interior finishes, with the possible addition of air conditioning and a new STEM building, among other things.
At recent meetings, it seems the School Board and Superintendent favor this option.
Interim Housing - During renovation, the District proposes one of the following:
Keep 6th-8th at the existing MVMS site during construction, in portables by the smelly sewage plant; or
Move Grade 6 to the Terra Marin Lomita Drive Campus, with Grades 7 and 8 remaining at the existing MVMS site during construction, in portables by the sewage plant; or
Temporarily relocate the entire Middle School (Grades 6-8) to the Terra Marin Lomita campus.
New Alternative 2 - Dual Schools at Edna
The District’s Proposal: The District would retain the full elementary school at Edna Maguire and add a new Middle School campus next door. There would be no need to relocate any students during construction, as students could remain at MVMS during construction.
We can all agree on something! The Edna school community and surrounding neighborhood strongly oppose this plan. If the renovation option proceeds, we might support dual-schools at Edna as an interim measure during construction, but our preferred plan does not require any crowded co-location or children on site during construction. However, we completely agree that dual-schools at Edna is not a suitable permanent plan! Frankly, this plan is designed to fail as a strawman alternative.
But, this is a false choice. There are better versions of an Edna solution, which the District may need to evaluate if and when the renovation option is declared infeasible by one of several State agencies. We know the Edna community will never support any version of an Edna solution unless there are no other alternatives. If it comes to that, though, we hope they will be open to working collaboratively with the District, so we can still have a modern middle school for our students.
Premature to Decide - Still Not Enough Information
The District is busy evaluating these two new alternatives, stressing everyone out in the process. This is unnecessary, as it is premature to decide. In addition to the unresolved soil issues noted above, there is another HUGE piece of missing information - Does renovating the Middle School still require deep soil mixing and soil removal? If so, are those costs feasible? Alternatively, is it safe and approvable to leave the 1970s foundation as-is?
Click the button below to learn about the open seismic questions.