Durbin Creek Elementary School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

The design of this school is driven by the age-old adage that “Form Should Follow Function”. The function, as educators will tell you today, is in fact the difficult part of the equation. Meetings with all instructional departments, teachers and various principals were used to discuss the evolution of general educational spaces and current delivery methods and styles. These discussions reviewed current school district facilities as well as tours of other facilities outside of the district.

Utmost of importance for the school district was the need to design spaces that support several concepts. These included a more exploratory method of instruction, possible multi-ageing of students; and maximum flexibility for instruction today and future developments.

To address the desire for a “small school” for this age group, instructional quadrants or houses help children identify with a smaller portion of the facility. Houses contain classroom areas, student restrooms, common instruction areas and wet areas with multiple sinks. These wet areas are pivotal in allowing the integration of the arts and sciences into all instruction areas since they provide easy access to multiple sinks and counters.

In order to allow for a team teaching approach and emphasize flexibility many of the walls within each house are designed as moveable. Great care was used to find panels that could be easily moved by teaching staff while providing adequate sound qualities. Display/markerboards are also integrated into the moveable walls.

Support areas such as Administration, Media, Music and Food Services are designed to be central within the facility, which serves to limit travel times for small children.

Thinking of up and coming instructional delivery methods includes the integration of technology and instruction. Every classroom and common area within each house includes ceiling mounted projectors for display of video format. Recognizing the importance of acoustics in the learning process a sound enhancement system is built into the ceilings of all of these areas. Through the use of microphones, teachers ensure that students learn to verbalize. This system also serves to maintain a personal connection between student and teacher, as a one on one quality is maintained. Further enhancing the instructional area is the integration of the LCD and sound enhancement systems, allowing for oversized display of video with a surround sound effect.

Whether using workstations, laptops or tablets there is little question that technology and its use in education is changing. To better serve students of today and tomorrow, a wireless system is installed to allow equal physical and technological flexibility.

From an exterior perspective, the use of banding and strategic location of colors is used to bring the overall building scale down for better integration into residential areas. Given the location of the school district, the facility is also designed to perform as a hurricane shelter if desired.

Educator Narrative

“The …. District will inspire in all students
a passion for lifelong learning,
creating educated and caring contributors to the world.”

This bold concept is the mission statement that serves as the keystone of the Strategic Plan adopted by the School Board in 2000. The first strategic objective addressed by the plan is that “Each student will master all academic standards set forth by the district and state.” We knew that for each student to master all standards we would have to depart from traditional instruction, and we would also need a facility design that would allow us maximum flexibility.

Our vision was to create a learning environment that would allow learning to occur at any time, any place, at any pace. Customized education would require us to individualize instruction. To assure that learning is individualized the first strategy of the plan states that “We will change the delivery system so that each student will master all academic standards.” The Strategic Plan requires a flexible instructional design that assures that every student works at an appropriate pace and reaches his or her maximum potential.

The district recognized that current school design would not provide the flexibility required by the new instructional methodology. Teachers would need to be able to work with students in a variety of constantly changing settings ranging from individual mentoring to small group and large class instruction. The need for instructional flexibility was the primary criterion driving the design of new elementary schools. Teachers needed the ability to rearrange space to meet the needs of each lesson whether it be one-on-one instruction, project learning, small group or whole class. The resulting design with movable walls will provide the instructional flexibility required to address the individual learning needs of students.

The second strategy of the Strategic Plan says that “We will utilize technologies throughout the system to manage data, enhance student achievement of our strategic objectives and communicate with internal and external communities.” Creating individualized learning paths for each student would not be possible without the use of technology. This would include networking infrastructure, Internet, hardware and software to allow for connectivity between schools and communities.

Planners also recognized that truly individualized instruction with learning paths for each student based on assessment; diagnosis and prescription could not be attained without the seamless incorporation of technology. Technology is an integral part of the instructional process and is incorporated in the design. A wireless network throughout the building
maintains the instructional flexibility provided by the building design. Both the internal and external design of this prototype elementary school provide the District with an innovative facility designed with the implementation of its Strategic Plan in mind.