Mobile Classroom

Five Keys Self-Determination Project

A School on Wheels

The Five Keys Self-Determination Project is a refurbished MUNI bus transformed into a mobile schoolhouse, complete with classroom space, a library, and computerized learning via a mobile hotspot. Additional services will include guidance counseling and social services to address issues such as substance abuse and violence prevention, which compromise learning opportunities.

Project Details

Project: Mobile

Location: San Francisco, CA

Status: Construction completed 2016

Spaces for: Education

Project & Program Partner: Five Keys Schools and Programs

DJDS Team: Zoe Parsigian, Julia Grinkrug, Deanna Van Buren, David Wright & Nathan Kandus (Envelope Engineers), Sudie Wentling, Sabrina Siskind

Five Keys Mobile Classroom interior

Radical Reimagining for Education

These mobile school sites can move around the city, providing key resources in a community, especially for neighborhoods where the majority of residents are below the federal poverty line and frequently have limited access to personal vehicles or even public transportation. Many are single parents with limited options for childcare. Safety is frequently an issue for Five Keys students. Many can’t cross the street to attend classes out of fear that they have entered into gang territory, even if they themselves aren’t gang members.

In bringing school to the people, the Five Keys Self-Determination Project harnesses the power of mobile infrastructure to address social change.