PEC ♥ ASAP  Get shovels in the ground
 
To: The Encinitas Union School District (EUSD) Board of Trustees, EUSD Superintendent Dr. Andrée Grey, The Encinitas City Council, Mayor Bruce Ehlers and Encinitas City Manager Jennifer Campbell

The campus that generations of students have known as Paul Ecke Central Elementary School (PEC) is no longer standing. Our children are displaced on buses and the hub of our community is gone. Permits to begin construction are stalled and there is no clear path to a resolution. We are asking the Encinitas Union School District and the City of Encinitas to make this school its top priority and Fast-Track every approval standing between our children and their neighborhood school. Avoid litigation at all costs. Get creative, think outside the box, and get shovels in the ground. 

Timeline 

Paul Ecke Central (PEC) has anchored Leucadia since 1927. In August of 2026 the campus was demolished. The scheduled reopening date of August 2027 has already been delayed due to a lack of building permits. 

• 1927 — The original schoolhouse opens.
• November 5, 2024 — The city of Encinitas votes for for Measure Z knowing taxes would rise, because our schools were worth it.
• January 8, 2025 — EUSD approves the roughly $60 million rebuild for PEC, funded by Measure Z, the bond Encinitas voters passed for exactly this purpose.
• August 12, 2026 — After a 2 month delay in permitting, demo began. Kids in Grades K-3 are bused to El Camino Creek (ECC) and Kids in Grades 4-6 are bused to Park Dale Lane (PDL).
• Progress Stalled — The district has confirmed the original August 2027 opening is not possible. Submittals for the construction permit still remain under City review.
• This Fall/Winter — An exposed, ungraded site will face a strong El Niño winter.

The Why
Measure Z is a fixed number. Construction costs are not. If this transitions to litigation, costs multiply and it isn’t the City’s money or the School District’s money. It’s the same neighbors paying twice. Stop the meter. Leucadia has also lost the daily foot traffic of families and kids, directly impacting local businesses around PEC.

However, this issue is not limited to PEC. Three school communities are directly carrying this, 520 PEC students and over 700 more at ECC and PDL. Zoom out further and remember that this project has been funded by all 60,000 residents of Encinitas. This is not a new shopping center or new mid-rise apartment building. This is the rebuild of a school that has stood on this site for close to 100 years.
 
The Ask
We are asking the City of Encinitas to declare Paul Ecke Central a top city priority, by Council vote, and to Fast-Track the permitting process for the PEC rebuild. The substandard-sized site, its location in the community, and the surrounding street network have not changed. These are long standing, known constraints that need to be resolved together, with exceptions granted.

All hands on deck, the City, the Architects and the District, to review, respond, approve and grant the permits needed for construction to begin. Get ahead of the rain. Everything the site needs to get through the winter should be approved now before the first major storm, not after it. Step back from litigation and come to the table. Get creative, think outside the box, and get shovels in the ground.
 
The Close
Our kids and families only want one thing, to be back at our neighborhood school. No one is interested in what the roadblocks were or how we got here. There is only one goal, get the rebuild of PEC back on track and let our kids return to their home campus without further delay. We need you to do everything you can to get behind this goal.

Let's stand together, side by side and work towards this. The school is named Paul Ecke Central. It’s more than a name. It is the center of our community. Help us bring it back.

Signed, the parents, grandparents, kids, neighbors, and taxpayers of Encinitas.