In 2021, KBZ Architects began planning Manzanita Public Charter School in the Lompoc Unified School District. Last year, we revealed the project's initial renderings, with construction to begin in 2026.

Lompoc Unified's original Los Padres Elementary campus was constructed in the mid-1960s in the middle of a thriving off-base military housing neighborhood. By 2008, the east housing neighborhood was closed, and Manzanita Public Charter School leased the school site from LUSD.

No significant improvements had been made to the site, so when the federal Public Schools on Military Installations (PSMI) program invited Manzanita to participate, it created an opportunity to renovate and expand the facilities to become a state-of-the-art campus.

“There is nothing more satisfying than working with a group of dedicated, loving educators who want to bring the very best to their students. Lompoc Unified and Manzanita Public Charter always put the children first, and I am tremendously excited to see the beneficial impacts on those scholars.”

— Todd Jespersen

The PSMI grant program provides an 80/20 funding mechanism, so leveraging those federal funds will have an outsize impact on local students.

We want to thank the following partners for their efforts in making this project a reality: LUSD, MPCS, VSFB, and the OLDCC (Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation - part of DoD)