Anyone who loves beauty can sympathize with you, but this is too big a project for any individual. Somehow you will need to organize a group, preferably those with some political clout, to complete the landscaping that should have been a part of the contract to build the school. It may have been landscaped originally with no program included to maintain it. Good luck in your efforts for a really worthy cause. Al

Al's right; this would be a big project. When I first saw the photo, though, I thought this (or at least or portion of it) might make a good "kill your lawn" native plant or Mediterranean demonstration garden. You have a number of native plant nurseries down there; perhaps they could put you in touch with someone. Maybe your water district or one of the science teachers might have an interest to show the public, including the kids, what is possible.

How about contacting someone like Greg Rubin, Calown.com. He is a landscape designer located in San Diego that is passionate about natives. Maybe he would be interested in helping or suggesting somehwere you could get some volunteers??? Also, the City - the County. Just contact anyone you can think and get the word out. Check out Greg's website for inspiration.

Maybe someone at UC San Marcos? Might make a good student project.

Another mom and I talked to the district grounds guy, and he said that we could do something with it. We'd need to give him a plan first. He said that the district could bring the dirt level down for us. We did contact the horticulture dept. at Mira Costa College, but got no response. But we'll try some other avenues; thanks for the suggestions.
One of the main difficulties, I'm guessing, is keeping it from becoming weed-infested.
Janine

Native plants would be nice. Maybe it could be a PTA project. Las Pilitas Nursery in Escondido might be a good place to go for help.

Weed infested, not so much without irrigation. The major issue might be kids walking all over it. It is what it is now for a reason. The soil is surely compacted to the texture of concrete. What happens when school lets out? Kids walking everywhere? How are you going to handle that? Plants that get too tall could block visibility for drivers, making the area less safe for child-pedestrians. What about deliberate vandalism? Lots of issues to handle. Good luck!

If they will take the dirt down for you, you may want to consider a rubble mural instead of plants. The kids could design it and help build it. It could be done in sections and be a source of school pride. You could use donated bricks, pavers, broken concrete, rocks, flagstones and tiles. You would have to make sure none were rock-throwing size, though. Then they could walk over it and people could still see well. It took me a summer to do my patio that way- it would go fast with a lot of people.
Renee

How about a combination of the two, like a big mural with a few tough natives here and there? It's such a long stretch I think it would look a bit barren without any plants at all, a few shrubs placed within the rubble mural would give a nicer look IMO.

I'm a school district construction manager, and often am faced with a situation like this (and yes, no money, and it's only going to get worse).

Gophers are a big problem, looks like if you could develop a meat gopher you could feed the world. Unless they are controlled they will shred any planting you do (the district might have an IPM guy on staff).

The district also doesn't do well with anything except flat grass you can mow with a tractor; planting beds get weedy and shrubs die off or get trampeled. It's too big for any rubbel mural (which also will be window ammunition). You're better off spending that time and energy doing a fundraiser to install irrigation and bermuda grass. Do not plan on volunteers for maintenance, people lose interest and it falls back on the district, so they need to have buy-in.