Muirlands Middle School modernization set to start Nov. 24

A modernization project at Muirlands Middle School in La Jolla is set to commence Monday, Nov. 24, Principal Brendan Simon told families in a newsletter this week.

The school’s “100” and physical education buildings will undergo renovations in work that is expected to be completed in July or August, followed by updating the “200” building.

According to the San Diego Unified School District’s facilities projects web page, Muirlands’ whole-site modernization project will renovate all existing permanent classrooms and support buildings, including the administration and multipurpose buildings, and make minor alterations to the media center/library. Existing campus portables will be removed.

Other changes include new finishes and furniture for classroom buildings, various site improvements such as landscape and irrigation repairs and parking lot upgrades with disabled-accessible spaces, a “whole-campus repaint” and a relocated main entry at the administration building.

The entire project is slated to continue into late 2028, with an estimated cost of $25 million.

“In the end, this will be needed for the school, not just aesthetically but functionally,” Simon told the La Jolla Light.

To accommodate the changes, workers are staging trailers and materials in the school’s rear dirt parking lot. Fencing will be between construction areas and places where students are allowed.

The project is beginning the first day of students’ week-long Thanksgiving break. After the break, students whose classes were in the affected buildings will continue with the same teachers but in different classrooms, according to Simon. A campus map with updated room locations is expected to be available next week.

Simon said he will conduct weekly meetings with the construction team in order to keep parents and other community members updated. School staff, construction crew leaders, moving companies and the lead architect met Nov. 12 to discuss project details and impacts.

La Jolla Elementary School, one of Muirlands’ peers in San Diego Unified’s La Jolla Cluster, completed a 3½-year modernization project last year.

Every part of the campus was touched with renovations or new construction, according to Principal Stephanie Hasselbrink, including a new two-story building, additional kindergarten classrooms, playgrounds and a single point of entry on Girard Avenue.

Two other La Jolla Cluster schools, Bird Rock Elementary and Torrey Pines Elementary, are slated for modernization projects in the next couple of years.