Nearby elementary schools include Peabody Charter, Monte Vista, Hope, Vieja Valley, Roosevelt, Adams, San Roque, and Marymount, as well as the Open Alternative School (K-8). La Colina Junior High School and Bishop Diego are within walking distance to the property. San Marcos, Dos Pueblos and Santa Barbara High Schools are also nearby, as is the Wake Adult Education Center on Turnpike Road. The County Schools office is less than half a mile from the site.

San Marcos Foothills would become an outdoor classroom with curricula developed for elementary and secondary grade levels, college and university, adult education and vocational education students. Plant and animal specimens and other teaching materials from local museums and schools would be used in outdoor education programs and at an Interpretive Center on San Marcos Foothills. (See Map 8, Priority Actions)

Action Opportunity: Formalize trail system and install benches at vista points with interpretive signs.

Action Opportunity: Build Interpretive Center at the north end of Via Gaitero Road.

Action Opportunity: Create Demonstration Gardens and trail along Via Gaitero Road to show vegetation types present on SMF.

Action Opportunity: Develop curricula to teach the Chumash ancestral values and lifeways.

Policy Ed-6.1: Promote and seek support for educational and interpretive programs, including support for curriculum development, in coordination with primary, secondary, college and university-level academic institutions.

Policy Ed-6.2: Coordinate with the Chumash community to develop educational and interpretive programs.

Policy Ed-6.3: Provide an education coordinator (to work in conjunction with a research coordinator) to oversee and promote educational activities on the property.

Policy Ed-6.4: Incorporate and make accessible on the web successful and appropriate educational and research programs.

Policy Ed-6.5: Develop a public outreach and docent program that welcomes especially those segments of the community lacking easy access to natural areas.