Nearly five years since construction of a multi-million-dollar facility began, the building is just now starting partial demolition in order to repair significant water intrusion issues. The 14,000-square-foot building for the students of the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy was supposed to be completed September of 2022.
According to DPEA Director Emily Shaeer, the Elings Center for Creative Learning is going to “help facilitate the next phase of development” for the DPEA, which began in 2002 with only 32 students building robots in a custodian closet. It now serves over 400 students–20 percent of DPHS’s student body– with plans to expand its reach further to TK-6 students by partnering with STEAM teachers across the community.
“The new building will serve as a hub for educational innovation as well as a gallery for our student-created interactive exhibits,” Shaeer said. “We look forward to when the facility is ready to be opened and we can showcase our vision for education.”
Initial construction began fall of 2019. When the COVID-19 Pandemic hit, supply chain issues and inflation significantly delayed progress. Despite this, construction continued and the buildings were set to open nearly three years later in the fall of 2023. The beginning of the 2023 school year welcomed the opening of the Virgil Elings Media Arts and Communications Center, which now exists as the center for DPMedia, holding TV broadcast, journalism, and yearbook classes as well computer science, digital art, and photography.
After a record amount of rain hit Southern California in January through March, a substantial amount of flooding was discovered inside the building. According to Steve Venz, the district’s chief operating officer, members of the DPEA staff documented significant water intrusion and requested for ETs to install video cameras to capture the leakage. The information was then brought to Telacu, the contractor who was chosen through a bid process to construct both CTE buildings.
“They were saying that the leaks were minor and they essentially did not want to take ownership of the leaks,” said Venz.
A disagreement between the contractors and SBUnified over the situation put construction on hold. Water intrusion experts were hired, who wrote up the directives in terms of what Telacu had to do to rectify the situation. Venz said that they will seek further legal guidance if the contractor does not stick to the contract outlining the required specifications given by the architect who oversees the project.
“It’s been extremely frustrating. And maddening,” Venz said. “And it’s not right that this company did not build that building the way that they were supposed to build it.”
Preparation for partial demolition of the building began last week, with demolition beginning this Thursday and lasting through November. The construction involves the removal of all the building stucco, parapet caps, and windows, as well as reinstalling the building waterproofing system per the original specifications. DPHS Principal William Woodard wrote in an email to DPHS staff that the admin is working on a plan to temporarily relocate impacted teachers in the H and C wings.
“It’s not going to be a quick fix. It’s going to be a loud, messy, noisy process,” Woodard said.
Although an exact date for the completion of the project is not set, construction is scheduled to finish early February, five years since it initially began.
“It’s been a lot slower than we would have liked, and we finally feel like we now have agreement that the work is going to proceed in the fall, very shortly,” Woodard said.
The facility was set to replace deteriorating 1970s portables. In 2013 a construction bond granted Santa Barbara Unified School District $5 million to replace these portables with new ones. However, DPEA founders Emily Shaeer and Amir Abo-Shaeer and DP Media Director John Dent received a career technical education (CTE) facilities grant from the state of California for an additional $5 million to build a CTE facility instead of new portables. Additional funding included a $4 million donation from Virgil Elings, a philanthropist who donated $1 million to the creation of the original DPEA facility more than a decade ago. The plan was to give space for the Dos Pueblos Media Arts Pathway in one building and the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy in the other.
Students at DP have been utilizing the Media Arts and Communications Center since it opened last year in the fall, and there have been no water intrusion issues found.
Despite this year’s seniors in the DPEA expecting a new facility, their work continues as they develop their mechatronics capstone project. Ashley Anderson (12) says that it is “pretty disappointing” that construction has taken this long and hopes that the building will be finished soon.
“The senior shop and the classrooms we do have available are really fun and have great machines, but I think it would be fun to be in a new building and be in a new space and be able to utilize that space.”
**Correction: an earlier version of this article stated an incorrect donation amount
**Correction: an earlier version of this article had an incorrect spelling of the construction company “Telacu”
