In 2024, Breans did something they had not done in about 25 years. They voted for a school bond, Measure H, a $160 million bond to modernize Brea’s schools.
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Approximately 70% of the bond is going toward the rebuilding and modernization of the 109-year-old junior high school.
It’s been two years, but the only change I’ve seen at the junior high school is the sign on the corner showing a rendering of a modernized campus to come, and thanking Brea voters for passing the bond. Nice, but what is next?
At the Aug. 20 school board meeting, representatives from PJHM Architects gave a presentation of the proposed renovations to the old school. They showed renderings and explained plans to tear down and renovate Brea Junior High School, bringing it into the 21st century. The entire modernization of the campus is expected in 2030.
Everything will be new except the 109-year-old administration building. While the building will be preserved, the interior will have new offices and other amenities to make the building more safe and functional for many years to come.
Dropping off and picking up students has always been a challenge at the school. The new campus, however, will have a circular drop off/pick up lane, plus a parking lot on the Brea Boulevard side of the school. More parking and a drop-off area will be on the Lambert Road side, on part of what is now a park.
It was also noted at the board meeting that the park has always been school district property. Now part of it will be for parking.
Last spring, the school’s staff took part in design meetings about what they needed in the new school. I bet they had a long list of needs.
Two years ago, when Measure H was on our ballots, there were tours of the campus offered. I took a tour and was appalled at the conditions of the classrooms, both permanent and the old portables that were there for the long haul, plus cramped storage areas and the general worn out campus condition. Parts of it reminded me of a Third World school.
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But that’s in the past, thanks to Measure H. Not only is the school getting a new campus, with modern seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms, plus classrooms for sixth graders. In 2030, the new campus and classrooms will be open, and all Brea public school sixth-graders will be at Brea Junior High.
In the meantime, the current campus will be used while the interim housing classrooms for seventh- and eighth-graders is being constructed and expected to open in 2028, said Superintendent Brinda Leon.
The permanent classrooms for the older two grades will be southeast of the admin building, while the sixth-grade classrooms will be west of it.
The new campus will have a cool gymnasium/performing arts building for sports plus choral, band and orchestra rehearsals, plus a stage and drama studio.
There will also be class spaces for art, flex/dance and digital broadcasting, technology, plus wood and metal shops that will include construction technology. A new library will be located behind the admin building. The food service building will be closer to the sixth graders’ classrooms than to the higher grades’ classrooms.
The bond funds will also be used to remove encapsulated asbestos at the junior high and Arovista, Country Hills, Falcon Academy and Mariposa elementary schools. Many Brea schools are so old that they don’t meet current earthquake safety standards, have hazardous materials, leaky pipes and other defects. These are all repairs that the state does not fund, but the bond will.
The junior high transformation has quite a ways to go, but 2030 is only four years away. Worth the wait.
Terri Daxon is a freelance writer and the owner of Daxon Marketing Communications. She gives her perspective on Brea issues twice a month. Contact her at [email protected].
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