DLR Group to Design New High School for California K–12 District

The Compton Unified School District in Compton, Calif., recently selected DLR Group to design its new Centennial High School, according to a news release. The Board of Trustees unanimously selected the design firm among six submissions in a design competition. DLR Group and CUSD are also partnering on the new Compton High School, currently under construction and scheduled for completion in January 2025.

“This signifies a continued fulfillment of the educational excellence for Compton Unified School District that we started seven years ago with Compton High School,” said DLR Group Principal and K–12 Education Leader Jesse Miller, AIA, DBIA. “These two, brand-new high schools coming online shine a light on the commitment the community and district have made so that their scholars have every opportunity to excel in the ever-changing world.”

Centennial High School currently serves about 1,000 students in Los Angeles County. The DLR Group design team will collaborate with staff, students, and community stakeholders to create a new campus that incorporates flexible learning environments into a historical, established institution.

“We’re excited to select DLR Group for the design of the new Centennial High School,” says CUSD Board President Denzell Perry. “They presented a bold, aspirational, and modern design that complements the look of the new Compton High School, while capturing the history and legacy of Centennial. This project signifies the Compton Unified Board of Trustees’ long-term vision and commitment to our district and community, creating state-of-the-art new schools that will elevate our scholars and city to all-new levels.”

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey

    Spaces4Learning recently launched the 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey, which collects data on the previous year’s K–12 and higher education construction projects nationwide.

  • Q&A: How to Prevent Kitchen Grease Fires in Commercial Kitchens

    School cafeterias and university dining halls serve thousands of meals daily, relying on high-heat equipment like fryers, grills, and ovens. While these operations keep students fed, they also generate significant grease-laden vapors. Without proper controls, this grease becomes a silent fire threat. As a certified exhaust cleaning specialist and business coach who has helped hundreds of institutional facilities achieve NFPA 96 compliance, I emphasize that proactive grease management isn’t optional; it’s a core fire/life safety practice.

  • Dallas ISD Voters Approve $6.2B Bond Package

    Dallas ISD voters have approved a record-setting $6.2-billion bond package that district leaders say will modernize aging campuses, eliminate portable classrooms and reshape learning environments across one of the nation’s largest school systems.

  • Opportunity by Design Framework

    Opportunity by Design

    Educational improvement efforts often focus on curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, and intervention systems while treating the physical school building as background. But school design is not a passive backdrop to learning — it is a structural lever for equity.