Design 39 Campus parent meetings are later this month

By Elizabeth Marie Himchak

Parents of children eligible to attend the new Design 39 Campus in Del Sur in August need and who have note attended a informational meeting have two chances remaining to do so.

The final meetings will be 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22 and Jan. 29 in the Del Norte High School Performing Arts Center, 16601 Nighthawk Lane in 4S Ranch.

Students who will be entering transitional kindergarten through sixth-grade with primary opportunity to be selected reside in Community Facilities Districts 6 (4S Ranch) plus 14 and 15 (both Del Sur). Students eligible for a very limited number of seats are those in CFDs 4, 8 and 12 (all Black Mountain Ranch) and 13 (The Lakes).

Those residing in any other area of Poway Unified School District, including Santa Fe Valley’s CFD 5 (Bel Etage and Savenna) and 9 (Salviati) are not eligible due to the way the school’s construction was financed, according to district officials.

To confirm CFD of residence, parents can check their property tax bill or go to www.powayparcelinfo.com access the Mello-Roos Parcel Lookup. For CFD and boundary questions, call Poway Unified’s Planning Department at 858-679-2570.

Unlike previous schools that were constructed through a mix of state and local funding, which consequently allowed all district students to enroll, Design 39 Campus was only funded through CFDs 4, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15, according to Associate Superintendent Malliga Tholandi. Students within these areas will be admitted based on a proportion that the school was funded by their CFD, also known as Mello-Roos funding.

“While there is a direct proportional relationship between the funds drawn from each of these CFDs and the number of available seats for students residing in these CFDs, there is no guarantee of enrollment in D39C for any specific student,” Tholandi wrote in a Jan. 7 letter. “Students from eligible CFDs who choose to apply will then have their names entered into a lottery.”

“We are planning that the lottery will be conducted in reverse order of grade level, so that it is done a manner that will honor families and keep siblings together,” said PUSD Spokeswoman Jessica Wakefield.

Even though students might be eligible to attend the future K-8 school that is next to Del Norte High School, Principal Sonya Wrisley said due to its untraditional teaching style some parents might not see it as a good fit for some or all of their children.

That is the reason for the informational nights, so parents get a clearer picture of the plan that includes a team of teachers instead of just one educating even the youngest students, frequently reassessing children’s progress as they are placed in various learning groups — instead of staying with their same age classmates for the entire day, and participating in learning experiences not offered in Poway Unified’s other traditional schools.

“They have to fully understand this school is very different from what they know,” Wrisley said. “The curriculum will be the same, but how we deliver it will be different. It’s a more integrated approach.

“This is not the factory model of the whole class learning, where a majority get it and the others (don’t),” she said. “This is more personalization.”

For example, Wrisley said a child might be placed with older students if an assessment shows the child reads above grade level, but would be with same-age students for math. If an assessment shows some children are struggling with a concept, they will be grouped together to get more concentrated attention until they catch up with their peers.

“This is very adaptive to their needs,” she said, adding there will not be traditional grades issued either, since theoretically they will work on concepts until all achieve “A” work.

“We will not be assigning grades, but a growth protectory. ... We want to know what they know to help every child get an ‘A’,” she said.

In addition to changing the way basic subjects are taught, Wrisley said the curriculum will also include:

• Focus time — when students can study a world language, engineering, video production or digital and physical music, for example;

• Minds and motion time — where in place of traditional physical education, students have opportunities to study perhaps dance, gymnastics or other physical activities that do not require running or playing specific sports, but teach them about exercise and living a healthy lifestyle; and

• Exploration time — elective-style activities that could include puppet making, gardening and guitar playing. “Here they can try new things and dabble in their interests and passions,” Wrisley said.

Construction on the 22-acre campus is set to be completed by July 31, the date when it will be turned over to the district, she said. This week the final steel beams — known as topping out — occurred when framework on Building B was installed. It is one of four buildings being constructed on the campus during this first phase.

The school is being built to accommodate 1,500 students with around 1,000 of them being kindergartners through fifth-graders and around 500 being sixth- through eighth-graders. When it opens with transitional kindergarten (for children close to the age cut-off, but still too young for kindergarten) through sixth-grade the classes will open at 70 to 75 percent capacity in order to allow room for those from new housing being constructed in Del Sur, officials said.

The 156,000-square-foot school — which in later years could be expanded — is to be built with a village concept that allows for greater collaboration between teachers and students in the same and various grade levels. Construction is expected to cost $56 million.

While the school’s enrollment is limited to specific neighborhoods, its purpose is to ease overcrowding at other schools in the area — namely Oak Valley Middle School and Monterey Ridge, Stone Ranch, Del Sur and Willow Grove elementary schools, Wrisley said. For its first year teachers will be hired from schools within the district. They have to apply since they will be expected to teach with a team and collaborative approach in lieu of having individual classrooms.