Design Tech High School - Update

Design Tech High School

Exciting two weeks for d.tech!

1. February 28th was the deadline for interested students to be eligible to participate in  the lottery for admission to d.tech. We had 161 applicants submit in time! 

2. Last week we attended the California Charter School Association's conference in San Jose. We spent a lot of time talking to other charter schools about the lottery process, enrollment and much more. We got tons of great information, made good connections with lots of people, and were very grateful for the free access to our lawyers, of which we took full advantage!!!

3. This week we had our lottery on March 13th. At that event, parents of applicants were able to chat with each other as well as some staff and other d.tech supporters as the lottery took place in the foreground. At the end of the lottery, families found out their student's number and status! We were able to offer admission to 150 students, and 7 students were placed on the wait list. (We are relentlessly optimistic that all 7 of those students will be offered admission in the coming weeks!) 

4. In the next two weeks, admitted families are being asked to accept or decline our offer of admission. As this process continues, we will have a better sense of our actual numbers. 

Still accepting applications!
In the meantime, d.tech is still accepting applications. Please encourage others to apply for this founding 9th grade class. Monday, March 17th is the next deadline for additional applicants. We will be holding our 2nd lottery on Thursday, March 20 to determine placement on the waiting list for those who have applied since the end of February. We will continue to have new deadlines and lotteries periodically over the coming months in order to ensure a full class. 
 

Location
As most of you know we have been engaged in discussions regarding two different locations: a separate wing at Mills High School and College of San Mateo.  The wing at Mills High School was offered to us by the district, and we were pursuing a space at College of San Mateo based on the assumption that Nueva High School was going to move out over the summer.  In a decision that surprised everyone, Nueva has exercised their lease option for another year in the facility meaning that the location is no longer an option for us.  

As many applicant families noted in their survey response there are distinct advantages associated with being at Mills, perhaps most important is that we could most likely remain at Mills for more than one year, giving our families stability and freeing up time and energy to search for the ideal permanent location. 

We do know that some people favored CSM, particularly in terms of the commute.  We have looked into how independent schools handle similar issues and will be sharing ideas with the applicant families. This is one of our first design challenges, but we are relentlessly optimistic that we'll be able to create a feasible solution, whether it's helping coordinate carpools or some other solution involving Caltrain,  shuttles, or something else. 

Virtual "high-five" for making it to the end! 
Thanks again for all the support!
Ken, Nicole, Christy and the rest of the d.tech team

1207 Lafayette Street

San Mateo CA

Design Tech High School cknott@dtechhs.org