Original Plan to Demolish and Rebuild Not Feasible
What happened? Why not feasible?
Original Budget - The District had budgeted about $7.8M for soil mitigation. 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.”
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 would add $9.4M, while the toxic soil removal would add $23M, for a total soil mitigation cost of…$32.4M. That brought the proposed cost up to $156M, which exceeded the original $130M budget.
So, Not Feasible - Based on advice from experts, the District has now determined that the demolition and rebuild plan is no longer financially feasible. Thank goodness. Our community can do better.
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 would:
Keep 6th-8th at the existing MVMS site during construction, in portables by the smelly sewage plant.
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 smelly sewage plant.
Temporarily relocate the entire Middle School (Grades 6-8) to the Terra Marin Lomita campus.
New Alternative 2 - Build a new campus at the Terra Marin Lomita Campus, co-located Edna Maguire, with no need to relocate any students during construction
The District would retain the full elementary school at Edna Maguire and add a new Middle School campus next door.
No need to relocate any students during construction, as students could remain at MVMS during construction.
Premature to Decide - Still Not Enough Information
The District is busy evaluating these two new alternatives, but it is premature to decide, as there is a HUGE piece of missing information - Does renovating the Middle School still require deep soil mixing and soil removal? If so, are those costs feasible?
Whether the building is rebuilt or just renovated, the fact remains that the site is in a seismic liquefaction zone. Soil mixing is done to stabilize the type of soil found under MVMS, which is prone to spreading and sliding.
At the August 15, 2025 School Board meeting, the District’s geological engineer noted that the renovation project could still require soil mixing, and thus soil removal, and all the costs the District was hoping to avoid ($32.4M estimate).
In that case, the renovation alternative would also be infeasible, leaving only the Terra Marin Lomita Campus option.
Bottom Line - The District should not waste time or money developing any plans until it has this answer from the State regulators. Likewise, the community should not waste energy debating these options either. It could be that only one option will remain once all the information is in.