The reopening of a long-awaited neighborhood school in Ocean Park has been pushed back to 2026, adding another delay to a campus renovation project that has displaced hundreds of students since 2022.
Construction on the Ocean Park neighborhood school, which previously housed John Muir Elementary School and the Santa Monica Alternative School House (SMASH), is now scheduled to be completed by the end of November 2025. Students and staff are expected to move in by spring 2026, according to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD).
The timeline represents another significant extension from earlier projections. In January 2023, officials had estimated the campus would reopen between January and August of 2025, already a delay from an original August 2024 target.
When completed, the campus will no longer house two independent schools. Rather, it will feature a new Project Based identity with new branding and a new name, details of which will be provided in the coming months.
The revamped school will expand its educational offerings by adding two transitional kindergarten (TK) classrooms and one additional kindergarten classroom. This expansion will allow the campus to serve students from TK through 8th grade.
District plans indicate the school will continue to grow in future years, with a goal of having two classes serving each grade level at full capacity of about 450 students, roughly the same total number of students that attended SMASH/Muir.
Families with incoming TK or kindergarten students who live in the Ocean Park neighborhood are being encouraged to enroll at SMASH for the 2025-26 school year, with the understanding that while the new school will not be named “Santa Monica Alternative School House” it will essentially be the SMASH program transitioned to the new campus with the same classmates and teachers when it reopens during that school year.
The new Ocean Park neighborhood school will represent a significant departure from the previous arrangement of two distinct educational entities sharing one campus. The school will build upon what the district describes as "the strengths and values of both" the former John Muir Elementary and SMASH programs.
The unified school will maintain the "social-emotionally focused and project-based learning model that has existed at the site for decades," according to district information. This approach builds on the alternative education philosophy that was previously associated primarily with the SMASH program. SMMUSD subsequently opened a project based high school program that is also open to all students regardless of elementary education.
This merger reflects discussions that began in November 2022, when SMMUSD officials first introduced the possibility that the campus could reopen as one "unified school" rather than maintaining the previous arrangement of separate institutions.
The campus closure and subsequent renovation project began after the release of a report in May 2021 that revealed extensive water damage requiring major repairs. Following the report's findings, the campus was closed at the end of the 2021-22 school year, displacing approximately 550 students who had attended the Ocean Park facility.
As assessments continued through 2022 and 2023, the scope of the project expanded. In January 2023, after consultations with the Division of the State Architect (DSA), district officials recommended pursuing structural upgrades as part of the repair project. This decision complicated the design and permitting process while increasing overall costs.
The structural work means that the campus's four buildings, which were built in 1995, will be retrofitted to meet current structural codes, in addition to addressing the water damage that caused the initial closure.
The closure of the Muir/SMASH campus set off a complex reorganization of students throughout the district, leading to concerns about equity and community preservation.
Students from SMASH were relocated as a cohesive unit to the Olympic High School campus, officially known as the Michelle and Barack Obama Center for Inquiry and Exploration. According to the latest district information, SMASH students will continue at the Obama Center campus until the reopening of the new Ocean Park facility.
Students attending the Olympic High School PBL program were moved to Santa Monica College, and will return to the Obama Center following the reopening of the Ocean Park neighborhood school.
The John Muir Elementary student body, however, was dispersed across multiple locations. The majority of Muir's approximately 230 students were relocated to Will Rogers Elementary, with the remaining students distributed to other elementary schools on a first come, first served basis.
This dispersal prompted concerns from John Muir parents and teachers during the initial closure discussions. At a June 2022 board meeting, several parents suggested the plan to keep SMASH intact while dispersing Muir students amounted to "discrimination against Muir."
At the time, parents also expressed fears that once closed, John Muir Elementary as a distinct entity would never return to the Ocean Park campus—concerns that appear to have been validated by the district's move toward a unified school model.
Throughout the closure and planning process, district officials have maintained that, regardless of the final arrangement, there would always be a neighborhood school on the Ocean Park campus.
