Design Tech High School Relocating to Oracle’s Redwood Shores Campus
During the Oracle OpenWorld 2015 Conference, Oracle CEO Safra Catz stated, “Seventeen years ago, Larry Ellison told me that he’d love to have a school where students learn to think. Our support of d.tech [Design Tech High School] reflects Larry’s vision for a unique high school founded on principles we believe in: innovation, creativity, problemsolving, and design thinking. We couldn’t be more excited to build this school on our campus and to see the positive impact it will undoubtedly have on the students, teachers, Oracle employees, and the Bay Area community.”
Scheduled for completion by the fall of 2017, the Oracle campus in Redwood Shores is slated to be the new home of Design Tech High School, or d.tech. This school is currently located in Burlingame with enrollment in their freshman and sophomore classes. After completion of the school’s brand-new, state-of-the-art facility of 64,000 square feet, total enrollment will be approximately 550 students after junior and senior classes are added.
Founded in 2014, d.tech launched a curriculum designed to be personalized and tailored to the needs of each individual student with the goal of developing the passions of each student. With guidance from their teachers, students have the ability to learn at the pace they need with tools that work for them.
The d.tech curriculum centers around several areas, including the humanities, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), life skills and enrichment, and design advisory. The study of human experience is achieved through courses in English, world language, and social science, while STEM courses focus on the premise that technology is rapidly evolving and will continue to develop at a fast pace. Life skills and enrichment classes focus on making each student a well-rounded person, and include courses in visual and performing arts, health and wellness, financial literacy, and socialemotional skills.
In addition to the other course areas, students also participate in the four-year design advisory, d.tech’s primary elective course. First-year students take a course called Foundations in Design Thinking that builds the foundation for developing skills like creativity, collaboration, and self-management. Sophomore, junior, and senior classes are asked to identify problems within their own communities and/or the world to see what solutions they can offer to the problems identified. With the guidance of their instructors, students will learn how to present real solutions to real problems.
Dr. Ken Montgomery, d.tech’s executive director and founder, says, “D.tech will be the world’s first educational institution located on a high-tech campus, which will give students immeasurable opportunities. We are incredibly grateful to Oracle for giving d.tech a home—a place to inspire and nurture students who will transform our community and world for the better.”
In addition to the announcement of d.tech relocating to the Oracle campus, residents of Redwood Shores also received exciting news from the Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary School District. In November 2014, Measure I was approved, which authorized $48 million in bonds for facilities expansion and improvements within the school district. To address continued increasing enrollment, Redwood Shores Elementary recently had two new classrooms added to its campus as part of the district’s first round of expansion. The second round of expansion will include an expansion of Sandpiper Elementary, which will also allow for elementary enrollment growth, plus a middle school option to serve as an alternative to Ralston Middle and Nesbit. As Redwood City school scores continue to rise, so too will its real estate values.
