Part 1: Portable classrooms, despite heat and noise, find permanent home in San Diego County
Part 2: Portable classrooms not always the right answer to school money question
See something wrong with the data, or want to update the numbers for your district? Email leocastaneda@inewsource.org.
Portable classrooms have become a common sight in schools in San Diego County — most parents, teachers and administrators have dealt with them in some way. We wanted to hear from them.
We’ve compiled some of the comments and thoughts you shared with us about portable classrooms. If you want to add something, please contact us here.
You’re kind of out in Timboktu, and if you have to get to something from the office, you just feel very isolated and they’re basically these boxes. They don’t have running water, it’s very isolated. I didn’t like it as a teacher being in that classroom… And I don’t know how long those are going to be there.
— Corey Ford, substitute teacher and parent at the Solana Beach School District
(San Diego Unified) has spent over 100 million dollars upgrading athletic fields and neglecting classrooms. This is a misuse of bond money and degrades neighborhoods that are near the fields. I live near (Point Loma High School) where a field upgrade is planned along with campus upgrade. The plan is to replace one building and improve 2 old ones when there is still far more needed. But the field will get a 10 million plus upgrade which will impact the neighborhood with light noise and parking issues instead. Where are the priorities? And why should the district be able to violate state code and impact a whole neighborhood?
— Angela Shaw, San Diego resident
I think it’s a positive thing, I don’t see any negative impact and in fact in a lot of ways I think they’re nicer and newer classrooms. I think they had air conditioning before the rest of the school, in fact.
— Peter Schwartz, parent of a fourth grader at Jerabek Elementary in San Diego Unified
What (parity of facilities) means to me is that we have a new school in Solana Ranch, in the Pacific Highlands Ranch and then we have some older school, specifically Skyline Elementary and Solana Beach that was built I think in the ‘40s or ‘50s. So we have a more aging school in the facility aspect of it. I think we have parity in instruction but what we’re hoping to accomplish with this bond, if it goes forward, is to have a reconstruction of Skyline so that it’ll be a facility that is a little bit more equal to the newer facilities.
— Vicki King, Solana Beach School District board president, on a bond measure being considered by the district
We want to hear from you
Share with us your experience with portable classrooms, your thoughts on this project or what you think classrooms will look like 20 years from now. Click below to contact us directly:
We’ll let you know when big things happen.
