BOND MEASURE HH NEWS AND UPDATES | | SAN DIEGO COLLEGE OF CONTINUING EDUCATION | |
A MESSAGE FROM VICE CHANCELLOR
DR. JOEL PETERSON
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Building the Future Together: Your Voice Shapes Measure HH
Stakeholder input during the programming phase is key to creating facilities that reflect our shared vision for student success.
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October marks a critical milestone for Measure HH as we’ve begun a series of project kickoff meetings across all our campuses. These sessions bring together our faculty, classified professionals, administrators, and other key stakeholders - the individuals who live and work in these spaces every day - with the architects, engineers, and builders who will bring their ideas to life. This is where the design journey begins, and where collaboration turns vision into action.
These kickoff meetings launch what is known as the programming phase – the essential first step of design development. Programming is where we capture the campus community’s vision, needs, and goals for each project. Every stakeholder group plays a vital role in shaping what these new facilities will become. It’s a time for open dialogue, creativity, and honest input. Every voice will be sought, heard, and reflected in the design, and all final concepts will be reviewed and approved by college leadership and campus stakeholders before moving forward.
Your participation matters – not only to ensure the best possible outcome, but also to keep projects on time and on budget. In construction, time truly is money; every day of delay can add $30,000–$40,000 in costs. That means when feedback is postponed, we risk losing both valuable input and critical project resources. The more efficiently we collaborate, the more we can invest directly into facilities that serve students, strengthen our colleges, and honor the trust of San Diego’s taxpayers.
Measure HH is a shared investment in our collective future. By engaging thoughtfully and promptly, we ensure that every project reflects our community’s priorities and delivers the highest value for our students and the region. The work begins together – and together, we will build spaces that inspire learning, inclusion, and opportunity for decades to come.
Thank you for your support.
Dr. Joel Peterson
Vice Chancellor & Executive Operations Officer
San Diego Community College District
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Design Workshops Held Across District Campuses
From theaters to sports complexes, administrative buildings to aviation facilities, every space on every campus must be thoughtfully planned and designed to ensure it works best for the people who use it daily. In September, the district announced the selection of 16 firms to manage eight major design-build projects across all district campuses. This set in motion an immediate planning process to start gathering feedback from as many stakeholders as possible before any shovels ever hit the ground.
“By utilizing the progressive design-build process, we’re bringing architects, engineers, and contractors together from the very beginning,” said Dr. Joel Peterson, Vice Chancellor - Executive Operations Officer, who is overseeing the Measure HH program. “This approach ensures greater collaboration, efficiency, and cost savings, while creating opportunities for faculty, student, and staff input as well as local and small businesses to participate in these milestone projects.”
These design workshops have now kicked off in earnest across all district campuses and campus leaders, faculty, classified professionals, administrators, and other key stakeholders are providing critical input that will shape the future of each college. Design doesn’t happen by accident; it happens through thoughtful and deliberate discussion. Everything from the location of a teaching lectern or how windows are oriented in a room to ensure natural light, can be part of the discussion. Multiple workshops are taking place regarding each project and in some cases tours of other offsite locations where similar projects have been built are being conducted to learn lessons, good and bad, from their experiences
The results should be that no new Measure HH project will be completed without having received substantial input from everyone that has something to do with the project and it will make the results significantly better. To learn more about the design-build process and the workshops, visit sdccd.edu/departments/operations/measurehh/.
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Top photo: Kickoff for the College of Continuing Education's West City Expansion project.
Bottom photo: Kickoff for Miramar College Early Childhood Education Center project.
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Building Skills While Building the Future
New SDCCD Bond Workforce Education Program helps construction partners and their families learn, grow, and advance.
As Measure HH construction projects move forward across the San Diego Community College District, a new initiative is ensuring the benefits of the bond extend beyond bricks and mortar. Through the Bond Workforce Education Program, every firm working on District projects now has the opportunity, and requirement, to invest directly in its people. The program encourages contractors and their employees to take free or low-cost classes (paid for by their employer) at any of SDCCD’s colleges, including the College of Continuing Education, which offers dozens of tuition-free options designed to build career and life skills.
The goal is simple: to help the men and women who are building the district’s future also develop their own. Participating companies must ensure that at least five percent of their local workforce, or a minimum of five individuals, enroll in and complete an SDCCD course during the current or previous two semesters. Courses may include business management, construction management, project leadership, or apprenticeship training in fields such as welding, carpentry and electrical. Spouses or dependents of workers may also participate, creating new educational opportunities for entire families.
This forward-thinking program supports SDCCD’s mission of lifelong learning and workforce advancement while strengthening relationships between the district and its contractor partners. By helping employees gain new skills, credentials, and personal enrichment, the Bond Workforce Education Program not only promotes career growth and retention, it reinforces the idea that every Measure HH project is also an investment in people. To learn more, visit sdcce.edu/workforce.
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Top photo: As part of a Workforce Education lunch and learn, contractors on the Educational Cultural Complex (ECC) Theatre Renovation tour the welding facility at the Skills Center, hearing from the instructor Mike Bradbury, an ECC alumnus, about career opportunities in the welding industry.
Bottom photo: ECC Theatre Renovation lunch and learn with contractors, members of the PCL Construction leadership team, and members of the College of Continuing Education's Outreach Services team.
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PMO Spotlight: Meet the Cumming Group
Driving innovation, accountability, and collaboration across Measure HH projects
If you’ve walked around any of our campuses recently, you’ve likely seen the early impact of Measure HH taking shape. Behind many of these efforts is the Cumming Group, the Program Management Organization (PMO) for Measure HH Region 3, which is responsible for providing overall program oversight and guidance for a range of capital renovation, replacement, and repair projects. While these might not all be the big projects everyone recognizes, these are projects that are essential to the day-to-day operations and activities of every college in the district.
Cumming partners closely with the San Diego Community College District to help develop project programs, budgets, schedules, and management procedures that keep Measure HH on track. Their work ensures that every project, from minor infrastructure upgrades to full building modernizations, moves efficiently from planning to completion, with complete alignment to campus operational goals. Whether it’s new lighting, HVAC systems, garage door replacements, chilling systems, lighting or roof repairs, the Cumming Group has a long list of projects to oversee.
Collaboration is key.
The Cumming team prides itself on communication and coordination. After initial kickoff meetings with District leadership and campus executives, Cumming helped establish monthly coordination sessions at each college to keep everyone, from vice presidents and operations directors to construction managers, on the same page and projects moving ahead smoothly. These meetings allow teams to anticipate project logistics, communicate construction impacts early, and ensure all activities align with the student experience and campus operations.
Keeping projects on time and on budget.
Using a project management information system called Procore, Cumming’s project managers monitor design and construction progress, track documentation, and maintain open communication between contractors, consultants, and District teams. This proactive management helps avoid costly delays and ensures each project stays on schedule and within budget.
What’s most rewarding?
For the Cumming Group, the reward is personal. “It’s incredibly gratifying to see how new facilities transform the learning environment and energize the campus community,” one team member shared. “Seeing students and staff react to these improvements reminds us why this work matters.”
Meet the Region 3 Team
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Top row, left to right: Rory Lorenzo, Program Director; Nirav Desai, Senior Project Manager; Leon Cavallo, Project Manager
Bottom row, left to right; K. Grace Chan, Senior Program Controls Manager; James Degenaar, Project Engineer; C.J. Slavin, Contracts Specialist.
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Cumming Group’s Measure HH Focus Areas
While some PMOs - like Gafcon and Kitchell - focus on design-build projects or new campus expansions, Cumming Group plays a crucial role in program-level management and modernization efforts. Their regionwide responsibilities emphasize:
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Capital Renewal and Replacement Projects: Overseeing upgrades to existing facilities, including energy systems, accessibility, and safety enhancements.
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Program Integration: Developing budgets, schedules, and uniform procedures that align all Measure HH projects under a single management framework.
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Schedule and Cost Oversight: Monitoring every project phase to maintain accountability, efficiency, and fiscal responsibility.
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Stakeholder Coordination: Ensuring collaboration among campus leaders, facilities teams, and contractors so each project reflects campus priorities.
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Continuous Improvement: Implementing data-driven tools and lessons learned from previous bond programs to optimize processes Districtwide.
While major design-build projects are just part of the facility transformation happening at our four colleges, there are also dozens of capital renovation and repair projects that will be taking place, transforming facilities from all corners of the campus. Here’s what’s coming up through spring of next year at the College of Continuing Education.
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President’s Advisory Council Tours ECC Theatre Renovation Site
The San Diego College of Continuing Education welcomed members of its President’s Advisory Council to the Educational Cultural Complex (ECC) this fall for an engaging meeting and an exclusive tour of the ECC Theatre renovation project.
Led by President Tina M. King, Ed.D., the event provided Council members a firsthand look at the transformative $50 million renovation – funded by a state grant secured by California Senate President pro Tempore Emeritus Toni G. Atkins and the voter-approved Measure HH bond. The project will revitalize the historic theatre, strengthening SDCCE’s role as a hub for arts education and community engagement in Southeast San Diego.
The Council, composed of respected community leaders from across the region, plays a vital advisory role in shaping SDCCE’s mission and future direction. During the visit, President King expressed gratitude for their ongoing support and emphasized the theatre’s importance as a space for creativity, connection, and lifelong learning.
“Having them step foot into our beloved theatre was a bonus and a reminder of the bright future ahead,” King said. The meeting also highlighted SDCCE’s latest accomplishments and outlined priorities for expanding access, inclusion, and innovation across all campuses.
| | SDCCE President Tina M. King joins members of the President’s Advisory Council for an exclusive walk-through of the Theatre Renovation site at the Educational Cultural Complex. | | |
Stay Connected
With projects now in construction and many more in the pipeline, Measure HH is already making a difference for the 90,000 students served annually by SDCCD. Visit the Measure HH website here!
We look forward to sharing more updates in future issues. If you have questions or ideas for a future story, we’d love to hear from you—just send us a message at
SDCCDMeasureHH@sdccd.edu.
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