With a capital project well underway, we have some revisions to our renovations precipitated by our decision to keep our sixth grade team at the elementary school. While the scope of our project remains the same with our technology and agriculture programs moving to our new Technology Center, this leaves me thinking about the current tech/ag space renovations.
As far as the overall project goes, our changes are relatively insignificant. We don’t need the four standard classrooms planned and so have gained approval from the State Education Department to renovate this space in a way that better serves the needs of the district.
We will move the high school main offices into the first of these spaces. This allows us to place the office in a more central location, right inside of the main entry doors and closer to the 7th/8th grade wing and the newly built Technology Center.
Adjoining this space will be a standard classroom that can be used for a variety of purposes, primarily an in-school/out of school suspension/after school detention room. I have always wondered at the ‘wisdom’ of out of school suspension for 90% of the offenses, considering that it gives the student a vacation of sorts, unless the parents impose consequences at home. With the number of working parents we have today (me included), making our OSS students report to a separate location within the school to continue instruction and supervision just makes more sense to me. To distinguish the difference between ISS and OSS, we can have the OSS students stay for detention too. This seems a better consequence/deterrent to bad choices than three to five days at home.
We can also use this room for meetings, small group testing, after school meetings and possibly BOE meetings, allowing quicker and easier access to the public. Following the High School Main Office and adjoining classroom will be an adaptive physical education room that can also be used as a wrestling room after school. Currently, our wrestling team practices in the multi-purpose room in the elementary school. If we eliminate the need for wrestling in the elementary building, we can more effectively use that space for OT/PT, vacating a space for a classroom. With sixth grade staying put in the elementary school, they can definitely benefit from the additional space.
I’m excited about our revised plan and hopeful that with the quick work of our architect and construction manager to get the new drawings to our contractors, we can stay right on target for an August completion date.