Planning Commission Meeting Agenda Packet 05272026

DMA, Inc. 5 Application Attachment 3-10-26.docx d. Evening events such as parent-teacher conferences, open houses or presentations occur after general business hours where parking is even more abundant. 11. Micro-Learning Design: Fusion will continue to provide a micro-learning environment – an intentionally small learning community – where its point of difference is that “every student is known, seen, and belongs.” Belonging has been linked to superior education outcomes and to eliminating the negative social consequences of larger populations, such as bullying and isolation. Students do not attend sessions all day, every day, but rather will continue staggered schedules, so the population inside the suite does not exceed the maximum proposed, and parking demand is reduced. 12. Premium, Personalized Learning: Fusion expansion will continue to look like an office floorplan for its learning space, which does not look like a traditional school. All the California Fusion Academies teach in Class A or B office buildings which for upper MS and all HS students create a college-like experience. Classes will continue to be taught in a highly personalized format, a model that was pioneered by its founder, Dr. Karen Bishop after she studied the effects of personalized education at Oxford University. In the Fusion model, and for the expansion, every student receives individualized instruction for each subject. a. In this format, Fusion resembles a tutoring facility and is tutoring-like in use of space, layout, and furniture. Fusion staff are experts at presenting the material, so students will continue to be taught to the individual’s learning pace, style, and preferences. b. One-to-one and small group instruction paced to a specific type and speed of learning have been shown to improve learning outcomes by up to 80%. Demand for more capacity here in Pleasanton is the driving force behind the entitlement request. c. Each session will continue to run for 50 minutes, although some ES classes are organized differently than MS and HS, and no two schedules are the same. Session schedules are personalized to fit each individual students’ needs and out-of-school schedules, which is important to students who are committed to extra-curricular activities, such as competition, training, sports, acting, music, or family needs such as extended travel. 13. Flexible Schedules – Various Reasons: Students and their parents are attracted to the flexible scheduling options. Flexible scheduling options are especially appealing for two types of students: (i) highly academic students seeking top-tier schools that take honors and AP courses and leave the school suite to focus on homework or writing assignments at home, and (ii) students pursing outside interests such as sports and training, health, and wellness, acting and music, family businesses or travel that makes matriculating at a traditional school impossible. Fusion is proud of its students who are actively involved in equestrian sports, golf, tennis, and acting. And, families benefit from compressing school and completing homework during the school day to maximize family activities, play and rest in the evening. 14. Students: Fusion students learn better with a non-traditional classroom setting and schedule for a variety of reasons. These typically fall into one of four categories of students. While the needs of each student type are different, they all share the fact that learning in a large, crowded setting is not how they learn best: a. Students who learn faster than the class move. They often become bored, unchallenged and over time, even unmotivated in large classrooms. b. Students who learn at a slower pace than in a traditional classroom. These students often have good intellect yet need to ask more questions to understand material. When that time is not allowed, and they do not understand the ‘why’ behind something, they become frustrated and fall behind in classroom settings.