North Monterey County Unified School District

REOPENING PLANNING AND ADVISORY SERVICES

Ensuring equitable access to learning and vital services for a high needs student community during crisis

North Monterey Unified School District wanted to build a world class STEAM-based curriculum for its 4,500 Pre-K through 12th grade students. But with its poor, mostly rural, immigrant population, the District couldn’t procure the capital funds to build new, modern learning facilities on any of its seven campuses. MKThink developed a Facilities Master Plan that established facility needs, co-crafted guiding principles, and created a framework to focus initiatives on a series of fundable projects that would effectively expand school-site capacity by increasing utilization of indoor and outdoor spaces. Building on this approach, MKThink further developed concept plans for its seven campuses that outlined a series of outdoor learning, play, and wellness projects that could be achieved using its General Fund and / or state grant programs. MKThink helped the District Board prioritize projects according to their level of impact on learning outcomes, student wellness, school image and identity, as well as schedule and budget.

BACK TO ALL PROJECTS

PROJECT:

DATE: 2021 - Present

CITY: Monterey County

STATE: California

SIZE/SCALE: 142 Acres

MARKET: K-12

SERVICES:

CHALLENGE: North Monterey Unified School District wanted to build a world class STEAM-based curriculum for its 4,500 Pre-K through 12th grade students. But with its poor, mostly rural, immigrant population, the District couldn’t procure the capital funds to build new, modern learning facilities on any of its seven campuses.

SERVICES: MKThink developed a Facilities Master Plan that established facility needs, co-crafted guiding principles, and created a framework to focus initiatives on a series of fundable projects that would effectively expand school-site capacity by increasing utilization of indoor and outdoor spaces. Building on this approach, MKThink further developed concept plans for its seven campuses that outlined a series of outdoor learning, play, and wellness projects that could be achieved using its General Fund and / or state grant programs. MKThink helped the District Board prioritize projects according to their level of impact on learning outcomes, student wellness, school image and identity, as well as schedule and budget.

RESULT: By expanding learning outdoors, the district is able to increase its effective capacity for instruction and recreation by 20%. What’s more, the district is able to increase the diversity of spaces at its disposal for learning, including new outdoor classrooms, nature-based play areas, edible gardens, and outdoor science labs. Also, by creating the space available for community use, success will be measured in terms of facility rent revenue for athletic facilities and fields.

METRICS OF SUCCESS: Expanded learning on site by 20% on each site. Created 1 additional period of instruction for each class cohort. Increased the porousness of each site by 20%, thereby reducing runoff and reducing heat island effect