Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Calif. District Opens First Phase of K–12 Campus

  • By Matt Jones
  • 08/16/21

The Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of Abram Agnew Elementary School and Dolores Huerta Middle School, representing the completion of the first phase of an all-in-one K–12 campus. When complete, the Agnews K–12 Campus will combine elementary-, middle- and high-school students onto a single 55-acre campus in San Jose, Calif.

The district partnered with LPA Design Studios on the project. “These schools are many years in the making, and we are honored to have collaborated with the district and Swinerton, our construction partner, to bring them to life,” said David Eaves, LPA studio director. “The campus will support the academic and social growth of students for generations.”

The final phase of the campus, Kathleen MacDonald High School, is scheduled for completion in time for the 2022–23 school year. A news release states that the three schools will share an aesthetic, but each will have its own age-appropriate scale and school colors. Each building will feature collaborative learning areas geared toward the age group in question. Blended amenities and outdoor learning areas will allow for the co-mingling of each school’s students, promoting mentorship opportunities.

According to the LPA website, the elementary school has a capacity of 600 students and covers 56,710 square feet. The middle school holds 1,000 students and covers 103,614 square feet. The high school will hold 1,600 and measure in at 192,230 square feet. The entire facility is built on the former site of the Agnews Developmental Center, a mental hospital that closed in the early 2000s.

“When you visit our classrooms, you will find spaces that rival those of our neighbors in Silicon Valley,” said SCUSD Superintendent Dr. Stella M. Kemp. “Places where people collaborate, develop solutions to real-world problems…and develop the mindset and skills to be resilient and future leaders in our community.”

Civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, the new middle school’s namesake, attended the ribbon-cutting celebration. “I know what all of us are thinking,” she said at the ceremony. “I wish I could’ve gone to this school.”

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Montclair State University Starts Construction on $120M STEM Building

    Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., recently broke ground on a new $120-million Interdisciplinary Science Building, according to university news. The university partnered with HoK Architects for the project’s design, and it’s scheduled to open in time for the 2028–29 academic year.

  • Auburn University Debuts $224M STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex

    Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., recently opened its new $224-million STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex, the largest research construction project in the university’s history, according to university news. The facility measures more than 265,000 square feet and brings six departments from the College of Agriculture and College of Sciences and Mathematics together under one roof.

  • Myrtle Grove Elementary

    Phased Construction Keeps Students on Campus During Rebuild

    When Escambia County School District needed to replace most of Myrtle Grove Elementary School in Pensacola, Fla., it had three distinct challenges: honor the school's legacy in the community, bring state-of-the-art learning environments to the county, and be seamlessly built on the same site as the active school campus.

  • Johns Hopkins Starts Construction on New Residence Hall, Dining Facility

    The Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., recently began construction on a new residence hall and dining facility, according to university news. The work involves demolishing the existing Alumni Memorial Residence Hall I, which was built in 1923, to make room for the new facility.