It all began with air conditioners.
Systems were being upgraded districtwide, said Long Beach Unified School District Assistant Superintendent David Miranda, and Washington Middle would be no different.
“But as we looked deeper, we realized this project might warrant something bigger,” he said.
And it did.
Educators joined civic leaders Wednesday to celebrate not the replacement of HVAC units but the start of a $176 million reconstruction of Washington Middle School’s five-acre campus.
Washington Middle’s principal, Roshann Williams, said it was a celebration of the school’s future. “And it is a future filled with endless possibilities for who? Our students,” she said.
The building plan, shown in renderings spaced around the groundbreaking ceremony, depicts a campus unrecognizable from what came before: state-of-the-art classrooms, basketball courts and a renovated administrative building. A courtyard will sit in the center while a cafeteria and auditorium will dot either end of the campus.
The groundbreaking ceremony, Miranda said, took place at the site of the new soccer field and underground parking garage.
It will be an all-electric campus, he added, with solar panels on each roof, charging stations throughout and battery storage onsite.
Construction, which began in November, will be paid primarily through school bonds, including the $1.7 billion Measure Q which passed in 2022, and $435,000 from the Measure E Fund.
Meanwhile, the school’s nearly 1,000 students commute to Butler Middle School, a previously vacant campus 2 miles away near Signal Hill.
Crews hope to finish by 2028, though concerns remain about ongoing labor shortages due to wildfire damage in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, as well as projects tied to the L.A. 2028 Olympics.
“We’re all struggling and fighting for the same labor,” Miranda said.
Guests at Wednesday’s ceremony, however, were not talking about money or labor. It was a day of celebration and photo ops replete with golden shovels. In the backdrop of speeches, balloons and unspotted hard hats, dozers standing atop the former buildings-turned-rubble scooped concrete by the clawful.
The project replaces a timeworn and cramped campus at Washington, one of the oldest in the district, officials said. The new design will also ease classroom overcrowding; with nearly 1,000 students fed from six elementary schools, the school is one of the most densely populated in the district.
“We didn’t have ‘modern’ for a long time,” Williams said, adding the project is a “gift.”
“Not just to the students who will attend Washington in the years to come,” she continued. “But to the educators, the staff, families and the community members that have supported us every step of the way.”
Speakers, including Mayor Rex Richardson, repeatedly praised parents and school administrators for shepherding the project forward, the latest in a series of moves meant to revitalize the Washington neighborhood.
“When I arrived (today), I was pretty surprised at the scope of work that’s already taken place with the demolition of this place,” Richardson said.
The school is situated in one of Long Beach’s most underserved areas.
The neighborhood, just west of Long Beach Boulevard between Pacific Coast Highway and Anaheim Street, has for decades dealt with outstanding crime, absentee landlords, sparse parkland, smog and violence.
The new middle school, Richardson said, will serve as “the crown jewel” around a greater renaissance of the neighborhood, accompanying other projects like the nearby youth center and 14th Street Park.
“We got some ‘pep in our step’ here in the Washington neighborhood,” Richardson said. “Together, there’s a collective impact that really should uplift this entire community, and that’s important. We’re not just breaking ground on a new school. What we’re doing is recognizing this building as a symbol to represent that we value these families here, these proud working families here in the Washington neighborhood.”