Public education in the United States has plentiful detractors - a 2023 poll from the Pew Research Center revealed that about half the county believes conventional K-12 schooling is "generally going in the wrong direction" - yet it is still one of the world's most well-developed systems, according to a recent U.S. News survey. Because of that, is it any wonder that change comes slowly to this country's long-established scholastic traditions? Determined to initiate a measure of change, one school district in Northern California set about enriching the learning atmosphere at its nine elementary schools and two middle schools by transforming their physical settings. The strategy of the Mountain View Whisman School District (MVWSD) was to augment its campuses - which are shared with the broader community as educational and recreational opportunities - with flexible, dynamic, multifunctional, outdoor spaces that promote and inspire sustainability as well as a greater connection to, and understanding of, the natural world.


Twenty-nine new trees that will provide approximately 2,000 square feet of additional shade when mature were installed, along with 19 varieties of California native species and many other climate-adapted plants. New areas include a learning garden, a nature discovery zone, an outdoor classroom, game-striped play areas, and the performance space in the foreground with its wood deck.

Initial Steps
MVWSD is located in the Silicon Valley, so it has been an up-close witness to profound change over the last 70 years as global tech leaders such as Google and Intuit have made their home there. The district introduced nature-based learning to its students a few years ago through a partnership with Living Classroom, a nonprofit organization the district engaged to create and maintain gardens at their schools and provide environmental literacy instruction. This effort was recognized as a success by faculty, administration, and the school board.


Paved with binder-stabilized decomposed granite, the learning garden includes: an 8'-long instructional table manufactured out of recycled plastic with a redwood finish, a garden shed, and redwood planter boxes. The planter box on the left is an ADA-compliant version Carducci Associates designed in conjunction with the fabricator. The new design went through multiple adaptations before being approved by the Division of the State Architect - a permitting body for public schools in California. The design team is now using that model at all the district's campuses.

In 2020, voters approved a bond to fund a variety of needs for the district, including an expansion of its nature-based learning. The focus at first to create a space at every school to accommodate at least one outdoor classroom, a measure necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as the health crisis apprehensions began to alleviate, the district reevaluated its goals, broadening the project's scope to a more comprehensive outdoor learning program. Carducci Associates - who had worked with MVWSD in the past on a series of projects at various schools, including one completely new campus - was selected to produce conceptual plans for the district's Outdoor Greening and Learning Spaces Initiative. The Landscape Architects began by gathering community and stakeholder input, then researching what had been generated through similar efforts in other districts around the country.


Surrounded by painted asphalt, the therapeutic sensory space features a small area of synthetic turf, a 4' x 8' outdoor chalkboard, basalt columns, a concrete seat wall, Eucalyptus tree stumps, and a Fernleaf Catalina Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus) tree. The metal bench in the background is a holdover.

 
"Some districts had developed materials or standards around outdoor learning," states George Loew, PLA and senior project manager at Carducci. "From that research, we came up with a way of evaluating the schools: a scoring system with word-related qualitative and quantitative metrics as well as categories of improvement - what we were calling implementations, such as a 'meadow' - that would help us achieve goals like biodiversity, seasonality, and opportunities for students to explore and discover."


Only a few years old, some asphalt was retained and painted with pavement coating, such as this area with a drop shot basketball hoop from Landscape Structures. The concrete ball walls in the background were poured in place using forms. The existing turf field was left in place.

Initial Evaluations
To help prioritize separate needs, each school assessed their current outdoor environment using the standardized scoring system established by the design team. This system encompassed six performance categories - physical comfort, outdoor learning, mental well-being, exploration and discovery, operations and sustainability, student safety, and experience - each one touching on an aspect the landscape architecture firm determined was key to outdoor greening and learning.


This outdoor gathering area is paved with 2"-thick, antique yellow flagstone set in decomposed granite. A total of 13 salvaged, debarked Eucalyptus logs - 6' to 8' in length and 15" to 18" in diameter - were sourced from Arborica, a local wood supplier. Stones included Carmel Valley boulders with a minimum size of 24" in all directions. The tree is an Island Oak (Quercus tomentella).

After grading the metrics individually, the numbers were totaled to produce an overall score for each school, which provided a general impression of the quality and performance of that school's outdoor environment. As part of the site and greening evaluations, diagrams were created to illustrate program elements, usage patterns, shade coverage, softscape, and hardscape areas for each school. These visual aids - along with photos of the existing sites - reinforced the individual outdoor environment assessments by providing clear, quantitative data. The final greening scores revealed that only four of the eleven schoolyards ranked as "barely adequate," and the remaining seven schools were below that level. This then allowed the schools to pinpoint specific areas in need of enhancement and make informed decisions regarding improvements aligned with MVWSD goals.


Natural logs and stumps are intended as play elements in the nature discovery zone. The logs are 8' long and 12" to 18" in diameter. Four stump clusters were specified. Plantings in the bed with natural mulch include Bush Germander (Teucrium fruticans 'Azureum'), and the tree is a Holly Oak (Quercus ilex).

Potential Greening Prospects
The district-wide standards the design team created for enhanced outdoor learning generated twelve categories of opportunities for integrated greening. Once these were identified, specific elements such as materials, plants, and play components were detailed for each opportunity that, in due course, offered inspiration and guidance for the final designs. The twelve ascertained opportunities are: a nature discovery zone, a woodland grove, an outdoor classroom/gathering area/seating area, a therapeutic space, a performance and event space, a meadow, a learning garden, an art display area, pavement and striping, educational signage, school frontage, and various teaching tools.


A decomposed granite pathway separates the learning garden from the outdoor gathering area. The plants are predominately native and were selected from a list given to Carducci Associates by Living Classroom, an organization that provides the school with environmental literacy instruction. A total of 16 basalt columns were specified for the site.

Turning Opportunities into Actualities
The $15 million bond produced a nearly $1.2 million allocation for each of the district's elementary school sites and additional funding for its two middle schools. Jose Antonio Vargas Elementary was selected as the pilot location for construction, with a completion date set for summer 2024. However, that target was delayed a year, during which time additional community engagement was conducted. Ultimately, the success of the Vargas campus build - and its positive results - became an affirmative model for the initiative.


A chalkboard enclosed by cedar doors anchors the outdoor classroom surfaced with decomposed granite. The existing metal tables have since been replaced by 8'-long picnic tables made of pressure-treated Douglas Fir. A total of eight 4' x 8' x 24"-high raised planter boxes were specified. In the foreground is some of site's remaining concrete paving.

In the end, the Landscape Architects completed the designs for all eleven district schools. The physical renovations of eight more are set to be finished this summer, and the final two - which comprise a joint campus that will serve as the district's summer school facilities in 2026 - will be revamped in summer 2027. The design team has recommended site assessments every five years to guide future improvements and maintenance.

"This district should be applauded for being willing to introduce things most districts are very nervous about introducing to their campuses, and for being very thoughtful about it and very engaged in it," Loew enthuses. "What they are doing, as far as we can tell, is not being done on a district-wide basis anywhere else in the country." As a measure of the success of their efforts, the Mountain View Whisman School District was honored with a California Green Ribbon School award for conserving resources while promoting health and environmental literacy.


The woodland grove comprises natural log edging with trees set on gentle mounds and layered, low-water-use understory plants like Island Bush Snapdragon (Galvezia speciosa 'Firecracker'). On the left is a Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia). A total of 36 tree stumps were specified, as were 33 Sonoma Fieldstone boulders.


The rock swale made of Lin Creek cobble abuts the performance space built with 1" x 6" bamboo decking from MOSO Bamboo.

As seen in LASN magazine, June 2026.