Brand New Building Makes History

By: Lily Gosney

Starting this 2025-2026 school year at Dana Hills, a brand new building opened, prioritizing history as its main department. The summer before the 2023-2024 school year, the portables that previously were in the place of the new building were demolished, and all history classrooms were relocated to the main building. Covering nearly 27,000 square feet, these new classrooms feature new desks and chairs, digital clocks and modernized windows giving Dana a new look. Bigger classrooms allow more students to fit into one classroom, reducing the amount of periods available per class. The project initially started because Dana Point as a community wanted to remodel and revamp our

city, so they paid an increased amount of property taxes in order to support building a new school. Unfortunately, they were unable to make it happen so they only remodeled part of the school. Although the landscaping and exterior is still undergoing construction, the development of the buildings are completed. The vision for the exterior was a two story, blue, white and grey colored outside building containing two bathrooms, and fourteen classrooms. When driving past Golden Lantern going to- ward the harbor, a new sign was also put into place, featuring a digital screen. This screen will potentially be showcasing events happening at Dana Hills for the day or upcoming week. Despite the new modern, sleek look, many students say that it doesn’t quite match the aesthetic or vibe that Dana already has. Few other complaints are the distance from the mall to the building and the volume of the fire alarms or announcements. Junior Xander Saint states that compared to the Mall and science buildings he “likes the seats and desks better because they are more comfortable to sit in.” Also, junior Astrid Ivarsson likes that during this hot season, “the air conditioning works well, so the classrooms are always cold.” History teacher, Mr. Hulse, states that the teachers “only were able to access the building a week before school started,” when the initial plan was to be able to move in a month before school started. During the first weeks of school, the staff and construction workers were still adjusting and tweaking a few details, one of them being the bells. While they were still figuring things out, the staff were testing different types of bells out and ultimately deciding on a completely new bell compared to previous years. Other campuses in our district such as San Clemente High and Aliso Niguel High have buildings similar to Dana’s new one, implying future remodeling plans for not only Dana Hills, but our neighboring schools as well.




Photo by Bo Wellner




(Caption) HISTORY’S NEW HOME : Modern architecture showcased in the new building’s outer appearance