On November 9, the SOCSD Facilities Committee met to review proposals from architects for the purpose of maintaining our school buildings. The primary role of the architect is to capture the vision of the board of education as this pertains to creating safe and productive learning spaces for our children. In the coming weeks, the SOCSD Facilities Committee will review and discuss the proposals for architectural services and make a recommendation to the board of education for their consideration and prospective appointment. We are hopeful to have our architects appointed in December to assist us in the process of facilities improvements. Our Board of Education, staff, and community stakeholders will continue to engage in a planning process that preserves and improves our publicly-owned assets. This process will reflect an emphasis on safety, long-range fiscal stewardship, cost savings, mission-focus, and design elements that meet the needs of 21st Century Learning.
- Safety: The scope of work that takes the highest priority are those elements of capital improvements that have a direct impact on the safety of our students. Each year, the community approves an amount of funding in its annual school budget dedicated for the purpose of addressing capital projects that keep our students and staff safe and healthy. Our board of education develops this scope of work using input from the Building Conditions Survey (an analysis of our facilities provided by a licensed architect) and the recommendations of the administration.
- Long-range fiscal stewardship and cost: While we may have unlimited wants and expectations, the reality is that we are living in an environment of limited resources that holds us responsible for maintaining long-term fiscal stability. If you have ever done home improvements in your own homes, you understand that there are costs associated with homeownership and different ways to pay for those capital projects (cash-in-hand, store credit, second mortgage, etc.). Similarly, we have decisions to make concerning how we finance our capital projects in our school district. For example, smaller capital projects can be funded using our annual operating budget, while larger capital projects may use borrowing through the issuance of a bond. These are the board of education decisions that are based upon public input through voter referendum and consider the “needs and wants” from a variety of stakeholders.
- Mission focus and design: In order to outpace the demands placed on our students by the 21st Century global economy, we have introduced Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classrooms (LATIC) as the norm in our school district (Sulla, 2011). We are creating spaces in our facilities that promote student-driven learning opportunities where students are inspired to create, explore, design, and innovate. The “factory model” classroom no longer meets the needs of modern society. This is because changes in technology are increasing at a rate that exponentially exceeds our ability to adapt to those changes in antiquated instructional spaces. Dr. Culot (Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction) along with myself and Ms. Sandy Winkler (School Business Administrator) recently met with our school principals to gather insight into what contemporary learning spaces might look like and how these ideas may better inform our capital project planning. Each principal will, in turn, be meeting with the SOCSD teachers to discuss how to transform antiquated and classical spaces into contemporary classrooms that are better aligned with the LATIC methodologies that are presently in practice. The following table describes the characteristics of antiquated, classical, and contemporary classroom spaces (Jacobs, 2017):
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Antiquated |
Classical |
Contemporary |
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- Reflects the wishes of the community: After all of these aspects of facilities planning have been considered, the spaces themselves need to reflect the goals and wishes of the community. These spaces belong to the people of South Orangetown and are a manifest of our aspirations for our children. Over the years, we have heard the public express their ideas concerning green spaces, environmental sustainability, economic feasibility, and programmatic priorities such as athletics and performing arts. All of the voices in our community should be listened to and are welcomed.
If anyone in our community wishes to become more involved, the best place to start is to attend any of our regularly scheduled Board of Education meetings. Here, we will have a standing agenda item that highlights the activities of our Facilities Committee and we encourage members of our community to participate in public commentary.
References
Jacobs, H. (2017). Bold Moves for Schools: How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments. ASCD. Alexandria, VA.
Sulla, N. (2011). Students Taking Charge: Inside the Learner Active Technology Infused Classroom. Routledge. New York, NY. http://www.idecorp.com/index.php/youll-know-it-when-you-see-it/