Some students in the Santa Clara Unified School District will be crossing the border into Sunnyvale when the new Laurelwood Elementary School campus opens on Aug. 10.
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The new school is located at 1095 Dunford Way in Sunnyvale, the former site of Patrick Henry Intermediate School, which closed in 1989. The 10-acre, 78,250-square-foot campus includes new single-story classroom buildings, multipurpose and administration buildings. The school district broke ground at the site in January 2024.
Students who were enrolled at the old Laurelwood school on Teal Way in Santa Clara will transfer to the new campus at the start of the school year.
Laurelwood is across the street from the private BASIS Independent Silicon Valley Lower School, inspiring the City of Sunnyvale to work with the school district and BASIS Independent to implement safety upgrades around the new campus.
“Our top priority is ensuring that every child traveling to and from campus can do so safely, whether they are walking, biking or being dropped off,” Public Safety Chief Daniel Pistor said in a release.
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To this end, Sunnyvale Public Safety officers will maintain a heightened presence around the campus during the opening weeks of school to monitor speed, enforce traffic laws and ensure crosswalk compliance.
Traffic for Laurelwood will be dispersed across two designated campus entry points, one on Teal Drive and one on Dunford Way, while BASIS Independent has implemented staggered start times across grade levels to reduce peak congestion.
Over the last six years, the city has made engineering enhancements—including red curb paint to improve sightlines, high-visibility crosswalks and new pedestrian features—across key intersections near the two campuses.
For more information. visit the City’s Safe Routes to School webpage at https://bit.ly/4pP4kTt.
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