New Upper Elementary School

Narratives

Relationships for Learning

From the first time we began discussing the school with the district, several strong ideas about learning, and its place in the community emerged. These ideas helped to shape both the design, and the process which was undertaken to plan and design the facility.

School as Community — Beyond being recognized as a facility to be shared with the community, both the project and the process were envisioned as a means of unifying the community. In support of these ideas:

• A steering committee representing all community stakeholders was formed prior to any planning or design work and participated in project visioning, programming, planning, design, and even color and finish selection.
• The design of the facility allows the community to have free use of arts facilities, instruction media center, gymnasium, cafeteria, and main lobby while fully securing all other administrative and instructional areas. The 800 seat auditorium, which will be the largest assembly space in the community, is also designed to allow concurrent use by the community during the school day, with its own public entrance.
• The design of the facility is a physical representation of the unification of community which was envisioned, utilizing a vocabulary of contrasting forms, volumes, materials, color, and pattern which is balanced and unified, but where individual elements maintain their separates identities.

Organizing Relationships to Support Learning — Recognition of the underlying multiple relationships which are essential to the learning environment the district wished to create. These included team teaching and looping practices, but also the relationship between the school and community, between base and rural families, and between the school and the district.

• The organization of the plan, subtle shifting and articulation of relatively simple volumes, and the limited use of more strongly contrasting volumes reinforces the underlying programmatic relationships, including team structure and grade organization, and suggests the more complex relationship between school and community.

Supporting Multiple Styles of Teaching and Learning — The facility must support a wide range of teaching and learning styles.

• The facility includes a wide variety of instructional areas including small group areas and project labs for each teaching team and a generous assortment of specialized learning areas.
• The facility also includes two less formal, more flexible learning forums in the main school and public lobbies. Each of these areas is a two story space with a podium area which can serve as stage or seating, and a balcony area to support large group gatherings or presentations.

Sustainability — Recognizing the potential of the school to be a statement of the school community’s views and attitudes toward the environment as a lesson to its children.

• The district elected to utilize a geothermal heating and cooling system despite its somewhat higher initial cost
• The building is organized along an east-west axis to maximize the potential for natural lighting. All instructional areas have generous natural light. Tined and stained glass was used in selected areas to emphasize the dynamic nature of natural light.

Educational Goals

Many of the ideas about learning which are applicable to the school are set forth in the Turning Points 2000 model for middle schools. While the Turning Points educational model was intended primarily to address the specific educational and developmental needs of middle grades students, many of its principles are relevant and applicable to the 5th and 6th grade populations this facility will serve. District educational goals for the programs to be housed in the new facility included:

* Teach a curriculum grounded in rigorous, public academic standards for what students should know and be able to do, relevant to the concerns of students approaching adolescence and based on how students learn best.

* Use instructional methods designed to prepare all students to achieve higher standards and become lifelong learners.

* Staff schools with teachers who are expert at teaching emerging adolescents and engage teachers in ongoing, targeted professional development opportunities.

* Organize relationships for learning to create a climate of intellectual development and a caring community of shared educational purpose.

* Govern democratically, through direct or representative participation by all school staff members, the adults who know the students best.

* Provide a safe and healthy school environment as part of improving academic performance and developing caring and ethical citizens.

* Involve parents and communities in supporting student learning and healthy development.

Prior to construction of the new Upper Elementary School, the District had implemented team teaching at the sixth grade level and looping of teachers in both the fifth and sixth grades. It was our desire to design the new facility to better support these practices and to allow implementation of team teaching at the fifth grade level. It was also our desire to have a facility which would support a broader range of learning styles including project-based learning and small group instruction for all students on a more regular basis.

It is also important to note the significance of this new facility to our sense of community. The District’s students are comprised of children of families stationed at a large air force base which falls within the District, and the children of families who live in the surrounding rural farm lands, many of whom are second and third generation residents. Prior to construction of the new Upper Elementary School, base children and Township children completed grades 1 through 6 in separate facilities, before moving on to the regional middle and high school system. This new facility will reunite all of the children of our school community in grades 5 and 6, affording them the opportunity to develop broader relationships before moving on, together, to middle school.

Our Board of Education also made a very conscious decision to commit to a building which was sustainable, even though it may have cost a bit more initially. As for lessons learned, we have a few of those from the construction process, but, as we have walked through the nearly completed project, we continue to be more excited at the opportunities this beautiful new facility will provide to our students, teachers, and community.