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Pacific Building Group Finishes New Charter School

A charter school that had been leasing a downtown office building for its classes has just finished construction of a new school in Chollas View.

Kipp Adelante Preparatory Academy will be ready to open the new school to students Aug. 31 if COVID-19 protocols allow on-site classroom instruction, said Rachelle Minix, school leader.

“We want our kids back. We miss them and we miss our families, but we also want to make sure everyone is safe and healthy,” Minix said.

Built by Pacific Building Group at 426 Euclid Ave., the $8.6 million project’s two buildings will enable the school to grow from its current enrollment of about 300 students to as many as 500, Minix said.

The 27,110 square-foot school was built in two stages adjacent to the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, with the first building completed in December and a second building finished in June, said Jim Roherty, president and CEO of Pacific Building Group.

Minix said students had barely started classes in the first building when the pandemic hit and students were sent home.

Old Site

Founded in 2003, Kipp Adelante Preparatory Academy had been leasing an office building at 6th and Beech Street.

The site was far from ideal.

The school serves students in grade five through eight who live in neighborhoods near the Jacobs Center and had to be driven in by their parents or bused in.

“There was no outdoor space. We did PE (physical education) in Balboa Park. We walked our students or took the bus to Balboa Park,” Minix said. “One beautiful thing about our (new) space is there is a lot of open space.

New Site

The school was designed by Roesling Nakamura Terada Architects, Inc. (RNT) with MCM Consulting also part of the construction team.

With 16 classrooms, the new school is built in a U-shape around an outdoor courtyard of 11,200 square feet and a grassy play areas of 12,000 square feet said Joe Mansfield of RNT.

The new school also has two music rooms, two special education classrooms, an art room and a multi-purpose room.

Exterior materials include stucco, fiber cement siding and galvanized metal work. The lobby entrance has high ceilings with exposed yellow cedar beams.

“We were obligated to compliment the Jacobs Center in terms of color and finish,” Mansfield said.

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