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What was once a Mountain View strip mall, complete with a Kohl’s, JoAnn Fabrics and 24 Hour Fitness, is officially on its way to becoming a new school campus.
Demolition recently began on an 11.7-acre plot of land within the San Antonio Shopping Center, where the Los Altos School District plans to build a 607-student school.
The start of construction has been a long time coming, with the district originally buying the land, dubbed the “10th school site,” back in 2019. A combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, funding challenges and controversies over which school to put on the site stalled the project for years.
In October, the school board approved schematic design plans and directed staff to pursue allocating the campus to Bullis Charter School when it’s complete. But the charter school, which has long had a contentious relationship with the school district, has strongly objected to being moved.
While a final decision on which students will use the new school hasn’t been made, the district is moving ahead with building the campus. Crews began to demolish the existing buildings on June 15 and the site is on track to be ready for students by fall 2028, according to Assistant Superintendent Erik Walukiewicz.
“We’re really seeing a lot of movement, and it’s been going great,” Walukiewicz told the Voice.
Following demolition, construction crews will start installing all of the necessary underground utilities, Walukiewicz said. Then, they will start building a foundation for the campus.
The plan is to construct a two-story school with three main buildings that will include 29 classrooms, plus administrative offices and a library. Additionally, the school will have outdoor play areas, separate buildings for a gym and multipurpose room, school drop-off and pick-up areas, and a dedicated parking lot.
The future campus has been designed to be able to accommodate students from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade, but that doesn’t mean that it will do so. Unlike any of the district’s schools, Bullis runs a TK-8 program. However, it also enrolls about 1,000 students, which is far more than the new campus is meant to house.
The charter school is currently split between two district campuses: Egan Junior High School and Blach Intermediate School. In February, the district presented plans to split Bullis between Egan and the 10th site.
This spring, the district’s board started having discussions with the charter school’s board to work out “the particulars” of these pending changes, Walukiewicz told the Voice.
The school district is planning to host an official groundbreaking ceremony toward the end of this summer, he said.
“It’s really taken a community effort … to get to this milestone,” Walukiewicz said. “To actually see demolition starting, it’s exciting.
