Winston School Jewel
Mike Peterson, Headmaster, The Winston School

At The Winston School, we have high hopes of enhancing the educational experience of our students while maintaining the close, collaborative and enduring partnership with our friends and neighbors in the Del Mar community forged through our successful effort at securing the Shores Property for future generations. Winston’s 55-year lease agreement with the City and the School’s commitment to enhance the Del Mar community by making some of its new space available to the Community are the building blocks of a lasting friendship.

In addition to a new and expanded school, items under consideration are a large meeting room for community and school events; an integrated art gallery space and/or performing arts center; a photography studio; a board room; and a community garden.

The Winston School, founded in 1988, provides a college preparatory program for students with learning differences in grades four through twelve. With dedicated faculty, small classes, multi-sensory teaching and individual attention, we emphasize the natural gifts of students in helping them develop the tools to lead successful and full lives.

One of Winston’s primary goals is gradually to expand our programs in the arts (theatre, music, and visual arts) as these are fields in which our students have historically found the greatest joy and success. So our new facility, when built, would mesh well with the Del Mar community which shares similar values and passions. The Winston History Department also aspires to a positive collaboration with the Del Mar Historical Society when the Alvarado House is relocated somewhere adjacent to the campus.

Winston will conserve water and energy through the use of solar panels, low-flow or waterless toilets and water-conserving landscaping.. We expect to design, construct and operate a LEED-certified facility, choosing building materials and systems which are environmentally friendly and to provide as beautiful a face to the neighborhood as the other homes around the campus.

The common room on the Winston campus would be available during certain non-school hours to community organizations. In the ideal world, parking would be underground in order to maximize open space and easily accommodate faculty and visitors while offering minimal disruption to the lives of our neighbors. The new school’s design will be in character with surrounding homes and the shoreline community.

Our thoughts on this are very preliminary, and we are open to your ideas and input.
The Winston School is appreciative of the tremendous outpouring of support from our neighbors and the entire Del Mar community – and we seek to deepen and broaden our base of friends. We ask for and need your continued financial help and advice as we move forward to complete our dream for the children of Winston and the residents of Del Mar. Please contact me at 858-259-8155 or send an email to mikepeterson@thewinstonschool.com