Students settle into new facilities in Portola Valley

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Portola Valley School District’s Ormondale Elementary School and Corte Madera School students are thriving with their new facilities that opened last year, according to Superintendent Roberta Zarea.

The school district celebrated the completion of their $49.5 million construction funded by Measure Z with a ribbon cutting in October 2023 and since then students, teachers and parents have been enjoying the new facilities. 

Along with a new STEAM (science, technology,engineering, arts, math) center, art room with a kiln and music classroom, Ormondale Elementary and Corte Madera have both incorporated more flexible learning spaces, allowing students to have more choices in where they want to learn. 

The Almanac toured the new facilities in February to get a first hand look.

Ormondale Elementary School

Ormondale’s sensory garden opens up an outdoor learning space where students can bring their reading and education into a natural environment, expanding outside the traditional classroom. 

Next to the sensory garden are multiple plots with fennel, citruses and carrots, teaching children more about vegetables and gardening. The space expands their garden program into a central area of the school, where students can freely pick pieces of fennel to snack on. 

“One thing that I really love about this garden program is that the kids are learning to eat vegetables,” said Lynette Hovland, principal of Ormondale Elementary. “They eat things that, when I was this age, I would have never even thought about.”

Ormondales new facilities are opening more opportunities for students to be creative, move around, and get messy. In what Hovland calls the “lab area,” the STEAM center, science, art and music classroom are located in a hub that inspires student creativity. 

The new STEAM center is equipped with ceiling electrical outlets and large workstations for students to build and tinker. For 40 minutes a week , teachers bring their classes into the STEAM center where students learn about computer science, robotics, sewing and more. On select days the room is open for students during mornings, lunch and recess for kids to build and create in their free time.

The science and art room offer students an open space for students to learn, experiment and create with others. Larger classroom spaces allow more partner work between students, especially for “buddy classes,” a program at Ormondale that pairs older and younger students.

“I love the light and I love the size because it’s very flexible,” said kindergarten teacher Linda Clark. “I think it’s really good for individual and group work. I can come in here with a buddy class so you can easily fit two classes at the same time.” 

In the new music classroom, music beams out of the doors as students learn about song and dance in a spacious carpeted room. During music class, students learn cultural dances, folk songs, rhythm and prepare for the school’s musical production — this year will be the “Little Mermaid.” Because of the extra space, students don’t bump into each other while dancing and moving around, Hovland said.

Outside of the classrooms is a courtyard with tables and chairs laid out for students to be able to spend their time outside.

“An important part of the design was for the kids to be able to spill out from inside and work outside as well,” said Hovland. “

In addition to the new classrooms, a new garden space was constructed to provide students with a larger area to meet the needs of all student groups. A variety of vegetables and flowers are grown in the garden including rainbow chard, nasturtium, peas, basil and radish.

Corte Madera School

In the recent construction that was completed during the spring and summer of 2023, Corte Madera School opened up a new atrium, a new playground, amphitheater and what they call the 500 wing, an outdoor space that overlooks the Frog Pond. 

“What’s beautiful about this is that it ties into nature and the aesthetics of Portola Valley,” said Roberta Zarea, superintendent of PVSD. 

The 500 wing houses the fourth and fifth grade science classrooms, which are also used for their afterschool program. The close proximity to the creek allows students to use the natural environment in their science experiments and observations. 

On the other side of the campus, the newly built atrium stands out as a fully modernized building. Its floor to ceiling windows provide a clear view of the Windy Hill in the distance, creating a bright and open space for students as they learn in their new classrooms, according to Zarea. 

The new building creates a flexible learning environment that students and teachers can utilize during or outside of class time. Decorated with bean bags and a long central table, students have different choices in where they want to do their work. 

During classes, teachers are able to bring their students outside the classroom to do interactive lessons in a bigger indoor space. They can also allow their class to work in the classroom or in the atrium’s central hallway where they can still supervise from inside the room. 

Within the atrium is the new STEAM center, art room, science class, Spanish class, study rooms and more. This modernized building creates a space for the school to hold art exhibitions, science fairs and other school events that used to be held in their multi-use room (MUR) and interrupt the gym class, according to Kristin Shima, principal of CMS.

“All we had was the MUR, so even when it rained everybody had to be housed in the MUR. They had to eat there, had to stay in here and now we can open this space, even in the rain,” said Shima.

Similarly to Ormondale, the STEAM center is used to teach coding, robotics, sewing and building. Corte Madera uniquely has a green room where students can film videos and learn video editing skills. Within the STEAM center and art room is a garage door that opens up one side of the classroom to a shaded outdoor area, expanding the learning space outside.

The students are enjoying the many options and the freedom to access different spaces to learn, said Shima. They can bring their chairs outside, sit on the carpet and bean bag chairs. Instead of a traditional desk, children at CMS are able to move around as they continue their learning in different places.  

A new playground was added next to the field and atrium, which Shima said was designed by the students. In the center of the campus, the new amphitheater provides an outdoor stage for school events and performances with an open area for guests to bring their lawn chairs and blankets.

“Kids are so lucky to see nature right where they go to school and there’s real pride on the campus,” said Zarea.

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