Design Tech High School
Design Tech High School, commonly referred to as d.tech or Design Tech, is a tuition-free public charter high school in Redwood City, California, part of the San Mateo Union High School District. Founded in 2014, the school has roughly 550 students (as of fall 2018) and focuses on implementing technology, self-direction, and the process of Design Thinking into its curriculum. In its short five-year history, the school has worked alongside the Stanford University and the Oracle Education Foundation to provide opportunities to students outside of their normal school environment. History. The petition that  would eventually lead to the creation of Design Tech was filed with the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) on September 12, 2013; the SMUHSD Board of Trustees unanimously accepted the petition in November. Design Tech was founded in 2014 by a group of four educators: Nicole Cerra, Ken Montgomery, Christy Knott, and Wendy Little, along with community members Sandra Feder, Ron Drabkin, Betsy Corcoran and David Little. Montgomery, who had previously been the Assistant Principal of Capuchino High School, was inspired by his studies at Stanford, where he attended classes at the Stanford d.school. The group began planning  of the school and opened in time for the 2014–2015 school year, with a temporary campus in a hallway at Mills High School in Millbrae, California. The first class of d.tech graduated in 2018. The school remained there for the entirety of the year, but students and parents of Mills complained about the school's presence. The next school year, d.tech migrated to a former auto body shop, nearby in an industrial area of Burlingame on Rollins Rd. During that school year, d.tech was offered the opportunity to design and build a building on a waterfront plot of land on  the Oracle campus in Redwood City, California. Throughout the year, students and faculty met with Oracle's architectural team to help design the new building, and it was completed in January 2018. As of 2019, Design Tech offers multiple courses out of the usual high school curriculum, including Creative Writing, Photography, Model United Nations, and Design Thinking. While the school does not have a standard Physical Education program, it offers sports such as sailing, basketball, soccer, volleyball, and baseball. Campus. Mills High School. Design Tech's first campus was at Mills High School in Millbrae, California. In spring 2014 SMUHSD  offered six classrooms at Mills essentially rent-free, based on the requirements of Proposition 39, which mandates that charter schools be offered facilities "reasonably equivalent" to public schools. School leaders had initially requested space at Burlingame High School, but district officials stated there was no space at BHS. Intended to be a temporary campus, d.tech was located within a single hallway at Mills. In the first two weeks of school at the Mills campus, instead of attending academic classes, students were tasked with designing their classroom layouts. They were also required to take a field trip on the second day  of school due to Mills' first day of school. However, students and parents of Mills complained about the presence of d.tech on their campus, capped by a contentious SMUHSD Board of Trustees meeting where State Senator Jerry Hill declared he would ask a civil grand jury to investigate the Board's responsiveness to citizens, and d.tech began planning their relocation within a few months. Rollins Road. Design Tech began to rent a large warehouse, previously an auto-body repair school, to use as their campus. It was located in Millbrae as well, on Rollins Road, adjacent to US Highway 101 . The students began to affectionately call this campus "Rollins", after the road it was located on. The main area of the building was the "Hangar"; a large, open, concrete-floored space. Classrooms in the Hangar were fluid; while some students often complained about distracting noise during their classes, as there were no walls or doors to stop sound or people from entering classrooms, other students felt that there was a special sense of community in this open space that brought them all closer together and could not be replicated in another way. The Rollins Road campus included the school's  first iteration of the Design Realization Garage which students used to build projects such as wheelchair-accessible ramps, skateboard racks, and a hexagonal bench that was eventually used as seating for meetings and snack breaks. Despite the limited space of the campus and its lack of school-related uses, students were quick to use the often empty parking lot for basketball, football, and other physical activities. Oracle. Soon after d.tech's move to Rollins, the Oracle Education Foundation announced plans to build a $43 million campus for d.tech on an unused plot of land adjacent to the Belmont Slough . They agreed to lease the building to d.tech for $1 per year, symbolic of the goal of having a strong relationship with the school. The building was designed to make space for a large, two-story, 20,000 square foot Design Realization Garage, or DRG, where students could work on projects during free time. During the first year on campus, students moved to increase happiness on campus by installing multiple vending machines with healthy snacks. This project by students spanned over the course of almost 3 years, with eventual support from staff after sorting out minor details. Awards and recognition . The current Design Tech High School campus building at Oracle has won multiple awards such as the Green Building Award from Sustainable San Mateo County and Best Education Project from both Silicon Valley Business Journal and PCBS as a part of their 2018 Gold Nugget Awards. The school is WASC accredited. Athletics. Design Tech offers students the chance to create sports teams based on interest. The first sport introduced to the school was Basketball during the school's inaugural year. The men's team completed a disappointing first year without accomplishing a victory, but have since become more successful, competing  for a playoff spot in the Private School: North League as recently as 2018. Since the inaugural year, the school has expanded to 6 sports for both Boys and Girls consisting of girls volleyball, cross country, basketball, soccer, boys baseball, girls softball, swimming, track, and sailing. In the 2019–2020 school year, girls volleyball, cross country, and boys basketball have qualified for CCS playoffs. Admissions. Design Tech applicants are admitted to the school based on a lottery system, per California law. The lottery gives preference to siblings and to students in the San Mateo and Sequoia High School districts. There are  more applicants than there are spaces available, and the school has moved to offer tours only after admission has been granted due to the large number of applicants.