The first week of school is a big deal for all six schools in the Mission Bay Cluster — particularly Mission Bay High School — which is breaking in a new principal and a new sports stadium this year.
“The Mission Bay Cluster is excited to announce that Ernest Remillard, who was the principal at Pacific Beach Middle School, is now thrilled to take the helm at Mission Bay High School,” said Maria Mikus, 2014-15 MB Cluster president. “Mr. Remillard brings boundless energy and a passion for the success of the MB Cluster of schools. The entire MB Cluster welcomes Mr. Remillard and looks forward to supporting his efforts in taking MBHS to the next level.”
The MB Cluster also includes Pacific Beach Middle, as well as Crown Point Junior Music Academy, Pacific Beach, Kate Sessions and Barnard Asia Pacific Language Academy elementary schools.
Mikus said construction begun last year on the Mission Bay High School football stadium track and field is making great progress, with construction more than two weeks ahead of schedule.
“The MBHS ‘Field of Dreams’ is currently slated to be completed in March 2015,” Mikus said.”The football field will be receiving a new track, bleachers, press box, athletic facilities building, lights, sound system, scoreboard and goalposts, equipment-storage facilities and new home and visitor entrance gates. The grass will be replaced with new synthetic turf and there will be an all-weather track.”
Mikus said MBHS’s softball field and baseball field are also receiving renovations and will be completed in the same timeline. 
“Many thanks go out to the San Diego Unified School District and the community of Pacific Beach for supporting this long-awaited renovation to MBHS,” she said.
Tom Yount, retired former MBHS principal, is helping with the transition at MBHS and PB Middle School, serving as interim principal at the middle school until Remillard’s ideal replacement can be found.
Yount, who retired as MBHS principal seven years ago, said he didn’t mind being drafted to help the MB Cluster out with its staff transitions.
“I know this school (Pacific Beach Middle). I worked here as vice principal in 1985,” he said, noting there’s a lot going on at the school this year.
“A total of 150 of our kids will be able to take two electives this year, and we have a very active orchestra program that they could take,” Yount said, adding that Pacific Beach Middle School is also broadening and building on its solid reputation as an International Baccalaureate (IB) school. IB is a nonprofit educational foundation for students ages 3 to 19, helping them develop the skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world.
“This is the second year of our Mandarin (Chinese language) program. Our kids took the first year last year, and we’re excited about the continuity,” Yount said, noting the Chinese “are going to be a huge influence on the future,”  while pointing out the Mission Beach Cluster’s Barnard (elementary) is “a Mandarin immersion magnet.”
The evolving Mandarin program is “very exciting for the future of the schools in our cluster,” Yount said.
The new PB Middle principal said the school, for the first time, is offering an Associated Student Body (ASB) class that will be dealing with the school yearbook, which will help teach students “leadership, responsibility and commitment to school and community.”