The community campus was designed to support the integration of Hearthstone Charter School and Butte County’s Special Adult Day Program. The charter school supports over 400 students that use the facility for classroom programs, small group activities, independent study and course curriculum. The adult program consists of two classrooms; one focused on life skills and the other on technology. The life skills program is designed as a commercial kitchen where the students create meals, keep budgets, purchase food, prepare and serve the food to the staff of the charter school.

“I am pleased and thankful it’s here. There are lots of possibilities here…we’re high tech, green, within budget, and everything is fabulous.” – Corin Meester, Director of Special Education

Classrooms have operable walls to allow program flexibility as well as large group gatherings. Each program has separate specialized facilities, and they share the exterior space. The backyard design of this family centered community facility contains a central quad gathering area for lectures and assemblies, gardens, picnic tables and a 4H program for small animals. The exterior design creates several outdoor learning environments that can be used for both programs. The design is based upon the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) to promote sustainability through the integration of education and the environment. n