Johnson Favaro has been commissioned by SMMUSD to master plan McKinley Elementary School. After passing Bond Measure SMS, the District sought to modernize existing buildings, replace old portable buildings with new permanent structures and construct new facilities across campuses in order to transform their schools into 21st century learning environments. Johnson Favaro was engaged to collaborate with the District in this endeavor by assessing existing campus conditions and developing a master plan that will guide the elementary school campus through phases of transformation over the next 15 years.

In early 2018, the District engaged a consultant to work collaboratively with the staff, parents, students and the communities of SMMUSD to prepare Education Specifications. In addition to describing the District’s educational goals, the SMMUSD Education Specifications explains the range of facility goals desired to facilitate project based, discovery, and collaborative approaches to teaching and learning that encourage individual and small group collaboration — a learning model that more closely aligns with today’s workforce needs. The master plan implemented designs that aligned with the latest teaching and learning models so that students are better equipped to develop skills for modern jobs later in life. The master plan identified the candidate first projects for SMMUSD Board of Education approval, which includes a new two-story classroom building with front office and school support, exit stairs and elevator replacement, new lunch shelter and learning garden at the cafeteria, main courtyard renovation, and north campus redevelopment.