The severe damage to many school buildings in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake prompted the California State Legislature to pass the Field Act, mandating that school buildings be earthquake-resistant. The state inspected EHS and found the campus to be unsafe, but the inspection report was never acted upon. In the 1950s, the district wanted to construct a new high school to address overcrowding. The new school was to be named Vallecitos High School and located at the present-day North Broadway site. Two bond measures were required to fund construction. When the district began the process of submitting the second bond measure, the state confronted them with the old inspection report. The state again declared the campus unsafe and then required the district to vacate EHS before attempting the bond measure. Classes were moved to the partially completed Vallecitos High, temporary tents, and the buildings at EHS that were still considered safe. The North Broadway campus was completed in 1954. The Vallecitos name was dropped and the campus took the Escondido High name. The downtown campus was fully demolished in the mid-1980s.