This prototype campus design created three new elementary school to respond to explosive enrollment growth and include the District’s first solar-powered school at Monterey Ridge, with 50-60% of its energy coming from a blanket of solar panels on the school’s anterior hillside reducing annual electrical costs by $30,000-40,000. The campus prototype is 21% below Title 24 standards and each is a certified California High Performance School.
The campus design incorporates the learning opportunities provided by nature, blends into each existing residential neighborhood and fully utilizes their slightly under-sized sites. In an effort to incorporate the most progressive ideas in educational facility planning, the design was created during an intensive 36-hour design symposium.
Each of the five identical Learning Villages are designed to provide maximum flexibility with six teaching stations arranged around a central commons area. Moveable walls allow staff to manipulate spaces as needed to facilitate a variety of teaching methodologies. The research component of the traditional Learning Resource Center is decentralized providing students with access to technology within each teaching station and village. Private outdoor patios, staff workrooms, storage and student and staff toilets are also decentralized for convenient access within each village. Accommodations were made for future expansion at each Learning Village.
