There will be a new public high school campus opening in Silicon Valley, brought to you by Silicon Valley.
In January, Oracle will open Design Tech High School on its campus in Redwood City, where 550 students will move in from a temporary campus in Burlingame. The school, which opened in 2014, will have a two-story workshop space at the new campus, called the Design Realization Garage, and the voluntary services of Oracle employees next door as mentors, according to the New York Times.
While many Silicon Valley companies and CEOs, such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, have shown keen interest in K-12 education, Design Tech High School is the first public high school that will sit next to a major tech company. Zuckerberg’s philanthropic foundation financially supports Design Tech High School, according to the school’s website.
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The school is a public charter school, meaning it operates independently but remains under the umbrella of the San Mateo Union High School District. Oracle will play no role in setting Design Tech’s curriculum or faculty hires, according to Ken Montgomery, executive director of the school.
“We are not just training kids to be Oracle employees or just using Oracle products,” said Montgomery to the Times.
But considering the school is on the Oracle campus, the school will be deeply intertwined with the software giant. Oracle, which announced the new campus project in 2015 and began construction last year, owns the land and the new campus, which cost $43 million. It will also cover maintenance costs such as landscaping and provide special shuttles to transport students to school, reports the New York Times.
Design Tech, or D.Tech for short, will pay Oracle $1 in rent annually and cover electricity, janitorial services and other operating costs. Read the full story on Silicon Beat.
