Beaumont High School Makes Room For 1,000-Plus Future Students

BEAUMONT, CA — Expansion work at Beaumont High School continues and — if the construction schedule holds — students enrolled in the 2021-22 academic school year will be stepping into some new digs.

The $68 million expansion includes a 25,000-square-foot, two-story modular building boasting Career Technical Education programs and general science labs, as well as a slew of ninth-grade classrooms. CTE programs are aimed at preparing students for college and careers through multi-year courses that integrate core academics with technical skills in a career pathway. At BHS, public safety, medical, and physical therapy/sports medicine CTE programs are planned in the new building.

As part of the Phase 1 expansion, the building is on track to open in August, according to Beaumont Unified School District’s Lisa Hendrix, who serves as director of facilities.

“We are very excited,” she said, noting that teachers are especially looking forward to the career pathways courses.

By August 2022, a second modular building of the same size is slated to be constructed adjacent to the new 2021 building as part of the Phase 2 expansion, Hendrix said. The building will hold science classrooms, administrative offices, a health office, and a new main entrance to the campus. An open courtyard will be situated between the modular buildings and there will be a new entrance plaza.

As part of the expansion, basketball courts and tennis courts are being relocated near the gymnasium, and athletic fields are being reconstructed for better access.

Parking lot expansions are also part of the project. Parking and student drop-off/pick-up will be reconfigured and expanded at the Cherry Valley Boulevard entrance.

Demolition of the student/staff parking lot at the campus’s north entrance, and tear-down of basketball and tennis courts have been completed. Crews are now working on the baseball and softball fields near the north entrance of the high school. See all of the planned expansion improvements here.

The reason the BHS expansion project is coming online in two phases is due to money.

“We don’t have all the funding yet,” Hendrix said. “But the first phase is fully funded.”

Project funding is coming in equal parts from developer fees, state money, and Measure Z dollars, Hendrix explained. The latter $125 million-dollar bond measure was approved in 2008 by voters within the Beaumont Unified School District boundaries. A Measure Z oversight committee was formed to ensure transparency. Candidates interested in serving on the committee should reach out to the district.

Constructed in 2006 and located at 39139 Cherry Valley Blvd., BHS has a current student population of 3,024. Over the next decade or so, that student body is estimated to increase by more than 1,600, according to Hendrix. The campus expansion will accommodate that uptick, she said.

The BHS expansion was approved by the district after findings from a BUSD committee determined the cost to build a new comprehensive high school was approximately $200 million dollars. Due to limited construction funds at the state and local level, the district moved forward with plans to expand BHS instead.

Beaumont Unified School District remains shuttered for in-person instruction, although BUSD spokesperson Francinni Zabata said the district board is expected to discuss a March 22 “hybrid” reopening for students in grades TK-5. The discussions will take place during the March 9 board meeting and will likely include an update on news that California’s public schools can tap into $6.6 billion from the state Legislature if they return to in-person instruction by the end of the month, according to an agreement announced Monday between Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s legislative leaders.

The state’s newly announced funding incentive currently only applies to grades TK-2 for counties in the state’s purple tier, which includes Riverside County. If the county moves out of the state's most restrictive tier this month, a state funding incentive to open more grades for in-person instruction would apply. Read more about the governor’s announcement here.

Regardless, there is much optimism that BUSD high school students will return to in-person learning by fall, if not earlier. The county’s COVID-19 cases are declining, and if the trend continues restrictions on school closures would be lifted.