Hundreds of eastern Chula Vista families could send their children to a new school in the next few years. The Sweetwater Union High School District has revised plans for a middle school in the Windingwalk community near the Otay Ranch Town Center. It’s located at the corner of Eastlake Parkway and Hunte Parkway.
“This type of development is very important for the community,” said Sweetwater spokesman Manny Rubio. “We weren’t sure how fast or how much this community was going to grow but obviously, it’s grown significantly.”
Rubio said the new middle school will take three to five years to be approved, designed, and built. He said it’s not as easy to build them at the same rate as the Chula Vista Elementary School District builds elementary schools. CVESD has plans for 10 new schools during the next 20 years.
“Middle schools and high schools are a little bit of a different animal in the sense that we need a lot more property, we need a lot more size,” said Rubio. The middle school site is 27 acres. Rubio said a full sized high school needs at least 40 acres.
The middle school is expected to handle upwards of 1,600 students once it’s completed. That should relieve some of the pressure at nearby middle schools like Eastlake, Rancho Del Rey, and Bonita Vista.
Sweetwater critics have said the district needs to build another high school to alleviate rising numbers at schools like Eastlake High School. Rubio said the district as at the very beginning stages of those plans.
“We’re having conversations now with all of our folks including the city and the developers on where that potentially could be.”
The new middle school will be built on the same location originally earmarked for a unique combination middle and high school. Those plans were scrapped when the economy tanked almost a decade ago. Rubio said those plans probably wouldn't be revived because there simply is not enough room on that property.
