The school officially broke ground in October of 2023 and expects to have the first two phases of the project complete by late 2025.

Traffic and parking improvements have been informed directly by the feedback we received from our community and developed in consultation with several traffic experts, including those advising the City of Oakland. Student drop-off and pick-up will be greatly enhanced by a new loop driveway encircling the new South Campus, with optimized traffic lights and efficient turning lanes to move the queues off of Lincoln Avenue. Parents will easily park in expanded parking lots to see their child off for the day, connect with school officials and socialize with fellow parents and staff in a new Welcome Center.

A series of signalized pedestrian crossings between the north and south sides of campus will safely allow students, staff and neighbors to cross Lincoln Avenue, much like other “campus” projects in Oakland such as Children’s Hospital. In the future, a pedestrian tunnel may provide the added convenience of a below-grade option for the campus community.

A pleasant change from most school construction projects, the majority of construction will occur across the street with minimal disruption to our current operations. With four large construction campus expansions since the 1990s, we are confident that we can maintain a positive school experience even in the midst of a major construction project.

The new South Campus will serve the needs of our students with enhancements that support academic rigor, experiential learning, and a student-centered approach. It will provide students and faculty with exceptional educational opportunities: cutting-edge labs with tools for ideation, prototype and design; and expansive green spaces that will promote outdoor, hands-on learning. Students and teachers will benefit from dedicated lab space for use in disciplines ranging from robotics and new media to woodworking and textiles to the performing arts. These opportunities will encourage students to apply their skill sets in novel ways while developing real-world problem-solving capabilities.

No. The cost of the project will be borne by a fundraising capital campaign—the largest campaign in the School’s history which concluded in December 2022—with any funding gap to be addressed by construction phasing and/or possible debt financing. Tuition will not be increased to pay for this building project. As part of our application to the city, we have requested permission to expand our student enrollment. The gradual addition of 344 students over a 20-year period will create significant new student scholarships, simultaneously expanding access to Head-Royce and increasing funding for well-deserving students of all financial backgrounds.

We are committed to preserving the small class sizes and student-centered, whole-child philosophy that make Head-Royce renowned. Historically, our enrollment size has grown at a rate of approximately 1% per year. We expect to continue this slow and measured enrollment growth, without compromising class size or individualized student attention. Over a 20-year period, we expect to reach a new maximum enrollment threshold of 1,250 students. This gradual increase would be primarily focused in the Upper School, where a slightly larger 9th-12th grade student body would enhance the student experience through more academic choice, and social and athletic opportunities.

Our plans have been informed by neighbor feedback from the very early stages, starting in 2013. Early neighbor input identified five areas of concern: process/transparency, enrollment size, traffic/parking, noise and neighborhood character. Thanks to the detailed notes we have gathered from our neighbors, we have identified innovative solutions to these concerns and others.

Throughout the planning process, Head-Royce made sure to keep neighbors informed of project updates and incorporate feedback voiced by the surrounding community into the South Campus Plan. From the earliest days of planning, Head-Royce hosted a number of meetings with neighbors, distributed email blasts with detailed project information and updates, and created a dedicated website during the public phase of the Framing Our Future campaign. We continue to provide information both directly and through Cahill, the construction team onsite, and we link important information in our neighborhood page, in the announcements section.

Head-Royce has been a proud and active member of the Lincoln-Highlands-Oakmore- Dimond community for over half a century, and we are committed to maintaining the highest levels of transparency and access for our neighbors. The FEIR document prepared by the City of Oakland finds that all environmental impacts from the project—such as noise and traffic—can be reduced to a level of “less than significant” with standard conditions of approval and mitigation measures. We believe the FEIR’s conclusions point to the thoughtfulness and care that went into developing this proposal. Learn more about the FEIR’s key findings here. 

The new Loop Driveway will alleviate the largest neighborhood disruption — parent pick-up and drop-off that slows traffic on Lincoln Avenue. The FEIR also stipulates that the School adopt a revised Transportation Policy Guide to help ensure that the Loop Driveway is used as intended and that traffic no longer spills over into the neighborhood.

No, the plan does not interfere with any of our neighbors’ current views of the Bay, Oakland or beyond. Our architects have designed the plans with careful attention to current sight lines and the only significant proposed addition, the Performing Arts Center, does not exceed the height of current structures.

No, there will not be any nighttime lighting beyond basic illumination for safe walking paths. The City of Oakland’s FEIR found that campus lighting would have a less than significant impact on the surrounding community.

As part of our ongoing commitment to being a good neighbor, we are quick to respond to any concerns raised by neighbors, and strictly enforce practices designed to limit noise at our school. We will continue to be vigilant on this front as we undertake this project. A sound-buffering perimeter wall, as well as the greenery along the perimeter, will limit noise for adjoining properties. Operational noise impacts from school activities have been determined to and will continue to comply with Oakland’s Noise Ordinance, and will end by 9:00 pm to ensure evening disturbances are limited.

Currently, 25% of our Head-Royce student body receives need-based tuition assistance and we anticipate maintaining or even increasing this ratio over time. The South Campus Plan will allow us to have nearly 100 new permanent student scholarships, making the Head-Royce experience accessible to deserving students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Additionally, we will be able to increase enrollment of Heads Up, a 35-year-old tuition-free program that provides first-generation college bound students of color from Oakland public schools with challenging and enriching programming to cultivate socially responsible leaders.

The South Campus expansion will incorporate several mitigation measures to reduce wildfire risk including:

• Providing a higher level of vegetation management than what is required under current City standards, thereby reducing the potential of embers being developed, further increasing the wildfire resilience of the community. 
• Removing dead and dying trees near existing and planned structures and planting new fire-safe landscaping. 
• Providing more unvegetated open space, roadways and pathways than currently exist, creating expansive fire breaks.  
• Installing modern fire protection systems in existing buildings included in the expansion.   
• Using fire-resistive construction materials as required by the California Building and Fire Codes in the construction of new and renovated buildings.

Learn more about the South Campus Plans wildfire mitigation measures here.

It’s never too late to make an impact at Head-Royce. While the public phase of the Framing our Future campaign is closed, we do have some naming opportunities available on the South Campus and we are always grateful for the generosity of our greater community. Through the Annual Fund, endowment funds, Heads Up, and other special campaigns like the South Campus, we have many opportunities to support the school in both one-time and ongoing ways. Visit our Giving page for more information.

Please contact the Head-Royce Advancement team at advancement@headroyce.org with any questions.