Carmel Del Mar parents press board for larger multipurpose room, clearer budget on modernization plans

Parents and school leaders pressed the Del Mar Union School District board on April 23 over plans to modernize Carmel Del Mar School, saying the district's preliminary proposal prioritizes an “innovation center” over expanding the school’s multipurpose room and that the community has not seen sufficient budget detail.

The concern centered on trade-offs between keeping the library as the “heart” of the school and reconfiguring that space as a library/innovation center while also expanding the multipurpose room — the space parents said they use for assemblies, performances and community events. “If we had an MUR that fit our school, we could use it in many more ways,” said Monique Wood, the recently elected PTA president of Carmel Del Mar School, during public comment.

School staff presented preliminary cost estimates and limitations. Mr. Delahanty, the district facilities presenter, told the board that Carmel Del Mar’s existing multipurpose room is about 2,800 square feet and that an expansion pushing the wall outward would add roughly 1,000 square feet (to about 3,800 square feet). He said the district’s architects estimate a high variance on that MUR…