Vision, Mission and Goals of PAUSD
Palo Alto Unified District has been educating children and adults for over 125 years. The district includes the city of Palo Alto, Stanford University and areas of Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto hills and Portola Valley within its attendance area. There are approximately 12,000 students attending eighteen schools in Palo Alto today. There are two High Schools, three Middle Schools, twelve Elementary Schools, plus one Transitional Kindergarten/Young Fives campus. Approximate breakdowns are as follows: TK and Young Fives serves 125 students, Elementary Schools serve 5,000 students, while the secondary schools serve roughly 7,000 students.
In 2007, the previous Long-Range Facilities Master Plan laid out a 20-year plan for developing and maintaining Palo Alto’s school facilities to the established standards of the day. Changes in technology and the educational mission of the district were addressed through a plan for funding new technology and planning flexibility in developing its school sites.
The efforts in this document are a continuation and update of the Strong Schools Bond Program.
Palo Alto School District continually strives to do its important work even better. In 2008, the district adopted a Strategic Plan which outlined a road map to meet its aspirational goals for students. This plan was evaluated and updated in 2013, and in 2017, PAUSD further established its universal goals and priorities to unify the multiple methods of planning across the district. The 2017-2018 school year Established Priorities and Goals capture efforts from many different means such as the LCAP (Local Control and Accountability Plan), WASC, and SIPSA (School Improvement Plan for Student Achievement) from each site. The district continues to self-assess and reflect on how to be most effective.
PAUSD’s Strategic Plan vision is to support all students as they prepare themselves to thrive as global citizens in a rapidly changing world, and develop students’ knowledge, critical thinking and problem solving skills, by nurturing their curiosity, creativity, and resilience with the goal of empowering every child to reach his or her fullest intellectual social, and creative potential. In order to fulfill this vision, PAUSD has defined five goals as providing: High Quality Teaching and Learning, Equity and Access, Wellness and Safety, Special Education & Inclusion and District Office Operations.
The Board of Education believes that careful planning is essential to effective implementation of district programs and policies and has established these clear goals to achieve its vision. Each students path to fulfill his or her fullest potential is shaped by many factors and the physical environment plays an especially large part. The Master Planning Team used the district vision and the goals established in 2018 by the Palo Alto School District to guide the process of updating its Long-Range Facilities Master Plan.
In examining the first goal of providing High Quality Teaching and Learning, the physical environment at a basic level, must provide adequate space and flexibility in design. Providing adequate space per student, providing space for classroom materials and space for hands on manipulatives prove to have a measurable impact on teaching and learning in every discipline, while flexibility in classroom design and furnishings proves to allow teachers to develop and implement meaningful, relevant, and adaptable curriculum. The school environment must be shaped by the teaching and learning. In addition to these basic physical components, high quality teaching and learning require access to natural daylighting, access to outdoor learning spaces, and space for current and future supportive technologies. Finally, to provide the highest quality teaching, adequate and professional space for school staff to plan and implement are essential. The physical environment has a measurable impact on teachers and students, laying the groundwork for their successful preparation.
Equity and Access to programs, services, activities and enrichment experiences is also greatly affected by the physical environment. To provide equity and access for all, a school campus should be physically designed to encourage community collaboration and partnership, providing a welcoming atmosphere and project an identity that broadly represents a diverse cultural association through universal design. An essential strategy to closing the achievement gap is providing adequate space for programs, student services and special education implemented by the district. Additional areas of consideration are providing quality food services, adequate space for community outreach and inclusion, flexibility to provide for different learning modalities (visual, movement, sound), providing break out areas for multiple activities, providing individual, small group tutorial and homework areas, providing access for after school use, and providing space for specialists supporting each school site. With these strategies in mind, the Master Planning team examined how each school campus could better serve to support students through universal design, with a mission of creating an environment for all learners.
Wellness and Safety prove to be foundational for a student to thrive and proved to be a very high priority of parents and community members. On a basic level, the physical environment shall provide excellent indoor air quality, visual, thermal and acoustical comfort, provide daylight and views to the outside, and provide access to clean and safe restrooms and food service facilities. A campus design shall provide safety for children during recess with easy access in emergencies, consider safe routes to school, provide security from mischief and vandalism and provide accommodations for lockdowns with visual screening capabilities. Furthermore, the physical environment shall support the social emotional learning by providing space for mental health services and space that promotes high levels of connection, engagement and overall well-being throughout the school community.
Improvement of Special Education and Inclusion has been identified as a goal for PAUSD. In 2018, additional funds were allocated for growth of the program services. The Facilities Master Plan identifies ways to support this goal by providing adequate square footage for programs and service at each of the neighborhood schools that prove to be deficient. Additionally, implementing Universal Design strategies will give access to all students to high-quality programs and services, in the least restrictive appropriate environment, designed to meet their unique needs.
The fifth goal identified is that District Office Operations shall optimize and ensure robust long-term plans for physical and financial capacity through prudent stewardship of resources. The development of this comprehensive Facilities Master Plan is only one step toward this goal. The implementation a Facilities Master Plan shall include clear communication with the community and between PAUSD district departments. The successful development and maintenance of the built environment shall be driven by regular communication by agile, flexible teams and through data-influenced decisions.
The ability to serve PAUSD students is dependent on the physical environment provided to staff and leadership to do their work. These long-term goals established by PAUSD are the guiding principles and basis of design in developing the Education Specifications and a Long-Range Facilities Master Plan. The design team shall periodically revisit these goals with district leadership to ensure continued relevancy, alignment, and implementation.