Marysville Getchell High School

Narratives

Design Narrative

Flexible Learning Spaces & SLCs
While specific curriculum needs typically drive educational specifications, this school’s design began just as the district was forming its new small learning communities (SLC) program. Concurrently, the district was formalizing a set of five Guiding Principles forming the basis of new educational programs: Relationships at the Center, Focused Learning, Identity-Purpose, Community, and Accountability.

These circumstances allowed the project team to critically reexamine the fundamental principles of educational environments. What resulted was an innovative, flexible architectural program and design focused entirely on modern student learning based in eight essential learning spaces capable of adapting to different curricula. Following development, the team performed scenario planning to ensure that specific SLC programs related to the four planned academies—Global Connections, International School of Communications, Bio-Medical Academy and School for the Entrepreneur—could be explored in these flexible spaces.

The planning and architecture organizes these functions into a three-story “shell and core” building for each of the four SLCs. The “shell and core” concept, by drawing most load bearing structure and plumbing out to the exterior walls (with electrical/HVAC routed through floor/ceiling), maximizes interior connectivity through transparency and interconnecting learning spaces. In addition to developing essential flexibility, hallways are eliminated altogether; allowing every single academy space to serve a learning function. Each SLC has its own principal, admin, library and resource areas, with these core support and administrative functions decentralized and distributed throughout the SLC.

The concept also allows interior walls to be easily reconfigured over time as evolving educational programs require new space configurations. The four SLC buildings are arrayed around a central Community Commons, which unites those functions shared by the entire school: fitness and P.E., kitchen and servery, commons/café, and support spaces. This design gives the campus a collegiate aesthetic.

Site Integration
The site is characterized by steep grade changes from east to west, extraordinary water views to the southwest and landscape views to the northwest, and mature evergreen trees and understory. Composing the school as a village campus of five distinct buildings and reducing the building footprint by composing the SLCs as three-story structures minimizes site impact, maximizes preservation of trees, and allows for a layout responsive to the site’s natural characteristics. The buildings nestle into the trees and topography, connected by boardwalk pathways, and the building orientations harvest significant natural daylight and provide experiential view connections to the surroundings. Additionally, this plan creates a campus setting where outdoor spaces provide endless learning opportunities and where students, staff and visitors can engage in a procession of social, professional, and educational interrelationships.

Process: Connecting People
The campus program and design emerged from students, staff, planners, and designers who engaged in a series of workshops, open house sessions, and eco-charettes. Foregoing the traditional groupings by department or curriculum content, the team organized participants by SLC and presented conceptual options with clear illustrations of how each choice fulfilled the Guiding Principles and central SLC goals. This approach accelerated the entire community’s learning curve as stakeholders adapted to a radically new educational program, while ensuring that design choices fulfilled that program.

Educator Narrative

Following the first successful bond issue in fifteen years, the district and community rallied under the courageous leadership of a newly appointed superintendent to redirect community energies toward positive change focused on student learning. Together with programming and planning specialists, staff, and community members, the district developed a set of five Guiding Principles detailing values and concepts central to student success:
1. Relationships at the Center: Students feel known, valued and inspired to perform at their highest potential. Collaboration (student-to-staff, student-to-student, and parent-to-school) personalizes learning. Every student has an adult advocate who encourages high achievement. Positive relationships are promoted.
2. Focused Learning: Student learning, starting with literacy, drives all decisions, including those related to instruction and construction. Purposeful teaching is responsive and challenges each student to meet or exceed district/state standards. Hands-on, interest-based, collaborative experiences allow all students to experience success on a daily basis.
3. Identity — Purpose: Each small learning community has a distinct, well-articulated vision, mission and focus embraced by all and imbedded in the school’s culture. This vision/purpose acts as the foundation for building design, curriculum, instructional approaches, and ongoing professional development. Students choose small learning communities reflective of their unique learning needs and interests.
4. Community: School/community partnerships promote real-life learning experiences. Each student’s cultural background and experiences are respected, valued and connected to the curriculum. Resources are equitably distributed to ensure success for every student. Students are connected to the community through internships, job shadowing and community projects.
5. Accountability: Outcomes are specified and measured. Members of the school community work together, share expertise, employ data, and exercise leadership to ensure that student achievement is the intended result of all decisions. They retain primary responsibility, are provided with appropriate flexibility, and accept accountability for decisions. Parents/guardians partner in the responsibility for student engagement and success.

Most dramatically, the process of creating these principles—and now applying them to this high school project—allowed us to leave behind traditional concepts of educational delivery and determine essential learning styles. From this foundation, we are creating an entirely new educational program of interest-based small learning communities (SLC). Each SLC will still be responsible for providing a comprehensive education to each student for meeting all graduation requirements and for all college entrance requirements preparing them to succeed in post-secondary education while maximizing personalization in the learning process. This high school project is the first to be built in alignment with these principles, and exhibits their exciting qualities.

Imagine a school without hallways. Imagine a school where learning takes place in every space, indoors and out. Imagine a school of ultimate flexibility to accommodate curriculum changes. Imagine a school that is truly a part of its landscape and of its community. Imagine a school that is focused entirely on student potential and learning.

We believe that this high school exhibits a bold, positive step in an exciting and innovative direction for this district and education as a whole.