RANCHO SANTA FE – Rancho Santa Fe School District's plans to build a middle school appear stalled – at least for now.
For nearly a year, school officials have been eyeing a 28-acre property at Via de la Valle and Calzada del Bosque for a second campus. But prominent horse breeders Betty Mabee and her son, Larry Mabee, bought the property in late July to develop a luxury horse breeding facility.
“I think it's effectively taken the Calzada site off the table,” said Scot Cheatham, a school district trustee.
The school board plans to discuss its next steps at a public meeting within the next few weeks, trustees said.
There's no question that the latest development is a disappointment.
“Here is one of the wealthiest communities in the U.S., and what is the priority we're putting on proper school facilities for our kids?” Cheatham said.
R. Roger Rowe School, on seven acres in Rancho Santa Fe Village, was built to accommodate 600 students but this year has about 775 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It needs gym space, athletic fields and new science labs, among other improvements.
The district envisioned the Calzada del Bosque site as a middle school campus that would take the pressure off Rowe, which would become an elementary school. District surveys conducted this year suggested that a majority of voters would support a bond measure to build a middle school at Calzada.
Bond measures to build a second campus failed in 2002 and 2006.
The Calzada property had been on the market since the 1990s, and school officials believed that the property still would be available by the time they passed a bond measure, said district Superintendent Lindy Delaney.
The district had planned to certify an environmental review for the property by November and place a bond measure on the ballot in February, Delaney said.
The Calzada property sold quickly. Mabee placed an option on the land in mid-July and two weeks later purchased it, Delaney said.
“It's very, very unfortunate . . . but I don't begrudge any willing buyer and any willing seller in a business transaction,” trustee Carlie Headapohl said. “That's the way it goes.”
With the Calzada property apparently off the table, some trustees are talking about renovating the Rowe campus to accommodate up to 850 students. A preliminary proposal calls for three-story classroom buildings.
“If our community won't support a bond for a new site, we'll do the best with what we have,” Headapohl said.
Bruce Lieberman: (760) 476-8205; bruce.lieberman@uniontrib.com
