The Cambridge School, a private Christian school currently based at 12,855 Black Mountain Rd. in Rancho Peñasquitos, has won city approval to build a permanent 6.5-acre campus in Del Sur that could eventually hold up to 663 students and 125 staff members. A San Diego hearing officer signed off on the conditional use permit earlier this month, clearing the way for a project years in the making at the southwest corner of Camino Del Sur and Coyote Bush Drive.
Hearing Officer Antoinette Gibbs approved the permit during a public hearing on September 9, and according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, no speakers showed up to oppose the project at that hearing. The decision is final unless someone appeals it to the San Diego Planning Commission. The school, which currently enrolls 406 students, has been trying to secure a permanent home for years — DSTC Venture LLC, tied to the school, first submitted its conditional use permit application back in December 2023.
The project sits on three parcels of vacant, previously graded land that were acquired between 2022 and 2024 for a combined $9.1 million, per the Union-Tribune's reporting. City records tracked the effort as Project No. PRJ-1109086, a mixed-use commercial zone allowing school use, under Conditional Use Permit PMT-3265502 with a CEQA environmental addendum, according to filings from the City of San Diego Development Services Department. Because the school's enrollment will eventually exceed 300 students, the city required this more rigorous, discretionary Process Level 3 review rather than a simple by-right approval.
Traffic Concerns Drove a Yearlong Delay
The scale of the campus — and its position along a busy commercial corridor — drew real scrutiny from neighbors in the Black Mountain Ranch community. A transportation analysis cited by the Union-Tribune projects the campus will generate 2,181 average daily car trips and add roughly 12,064 vehicle miles per day to the regional road network. The Black Mountain Ranch Community Planning Group unanimously recommended approval in July, with one abstention, but only after the school made changes.
Arlene Tendick, representing the school, said adding a third level of parking to the partially subterranean garage was the biggest change to the project and added roughly a year to the timeline, per the Union-Tribune. That extra level added 150 parking spaces, bringing the total to 386 spots — an effort aimed squarely at easing the traffic and parking pressure that had worried residents during the community engagement process the school ran throughout 2024.
To satisfy the city, the project also comes bundled with binding infrastructure conditions that must be completed and operational before the campus can open at all. Those include retroreflective traffic signals, new continental crosswalks at Camino Del Sur and Coyote Bush Drive, rebuilt curb ramps, and a widened sidewalk parkway, according to Realtor.com.
A Sports Field Built on Top of a Parking Deck
Architecturally, the approved plans call for a 182,868-square-foot, three-story classroom building designed in the Spanish modern style, along with a separate 10,904-square-foot single-story multipurpose building. Perhaps the most distinctive feature: a full track and sports field built atop the parking deck, which will support the athletic ambitions of the school's CIF Frontier Conference teams, known as the Griffins, according to MaxPreps.
Tendick said the school intends for the Del Sur site to be its permanent home and wants the design flexible enough to grow over time, the Union-Tribune reported. Next, the school will finalize construction documents, with groundbreaking expected in 18 to 24 months and construction itself anticipated to take around two years. The school declined to disclose a project cost.
Founder Built the School From Nine Students
Founded in 2006, The Cambridge School started with just nine students and now offers what it calls a classical Christian education spanning junior kindergarten through high school. Founder Jean Kim holds a B.A. in History from Yale University and served two terms on the board of the national Society for Classical Learning. Kim founded the school, according to The Cambridge School. Kim has said the school uses no technology in the elementary years and low technology in middle and high school, an approach rooted in the classical trivium framework of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
That low-tech, primary-text-focused model puts Cambridge in step with a fast-growing national movement. The Association of Classical Christian Schools, a national network that accredits and advocates for classical Christian institutions, grew from just a handful of schools in the 1990s to more than 450 member schools by 2026, according to RealClearEducation. The RealClearEducation article reports an average 4.8% annual growth rate in new classical-school openings between 2019 and 2023. Separate market research from Arcadia Education Group projects nationwide K-12 classical education enrollment will reach 1.4 million students by 2035.
Tuition at Cambridge is set at $31,980 annually, excluding fees. The campus is planned for Del Sur along the Camino Del Sur corridor.
Joining a Crowded Field of Highly Rated Public Schools
The new campus will also sit within the boundary of the Poway Unified School District. Cambridge's expansion adds a private option in the area.
