Project: Dearborn School JLA Project No. 1301

Distribution: attendees; project file

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Agenda: Discuss building project goals, process, and schedule with Dearborn School’s Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) and receive input from the team on the future form of education and its impact on the Dearborn School project.

Introduction

1. JL introduced the upcoming work on the Dearborn School as a long-term project with a 50 year commitment to excellence. This requires projecting and envisioning the needs of the future.

2. JL discussed the importance of teachers as authors of school culture. The school reflects the teachers, the teachers reflect their successors. This is the core dynamic that defines a school culture. Teachers act as emissaries of change.

3. As a means of describing the intent of the meeting, JL described aspects of physical planning and the process of developing an Education Specification. Further detail was given to describe the feasibility study and technical drawing components of the work to be carried out by the design team.

4. JL concluded his introduction by stating that it is the intent of the design team to tailor the building to the specific needs of the staff. In order to do this a series of questions and talking points have been assembled for discussion.

The following listed items reflect suggestions made by the ILT to the design team about needs and opportunities for the new school. These suggestions were made in indirect reference to a series of written prompts provided by JLA.

General Discussion

1. Visions of Instructional Spaces

· CCTV in school with a television studio for kids to use. Newsrooms can be used internally as well as for community outreach

· T3 (Teacher Turnaround Teams) /City Year flexible space with movable partitions

· Create entire walls for writing.

· Problem solving space with open class organization.

· “Library Carrel” for each student.

· Small / Medium / Large spaces for student work and instruction.

· Whiteboard as teaching surface.

· Classrooms should be spatially interconnected.

· Classrooms should be acoustically separated. In the existing classrooms sound transmits between floors and walls as well as through the air shafts located in the corridor wall.

· Larger rooms should be convertible back to smaller spaces.

· Partitions may be transparent as well as opaque.

· Tackable surfaces needed in halls, visual arts spaces. Classrooms and hallways should be “Gallery Space.” (Within constraints of fire code)

· Glass display cases would be useful.

· Lockers for books not needed. May be useful for coats only. Could be a modular lockable unit

2. Visions of Common Spaces

· The idea of an overall commons is key. Could be a space that is combinable with a stage, media lab, and project space.

· Carousels in the media lab space/spaces?

· School safety is important. There are ID card systems now that control entry and monitor behavior.

· The common room would be used to facilitate a sense of community. Commons may also be useful at grade-by-grade level or by cohort.

· Should be open for use after school for students seeking tutoring.

· Floors that are comfortable and springy would be useful. Rubber?

· Public spaces should allow for a “see and be seen” element that is important to youth culture. Captures the chemistry of socializing and working.

· Sensory garden would be useful.

· School store.

· Community space as part of commons?

3. Responses to Existing Building

· Lack of natural light is a big problem

· Access to a source of water in the classrooms is a problem

· Children do not gain an understanding of sustainability through the building.

· Acoustical transmission up the center stair and between floors is a problem.

· The long corridors with “nooks and crannies” create a problem for monitoring the school.

· The building does not have balanced heat.

· Custodians need more space.

· Two-way mirrors or some way to facilitate peer observation in SPED space would be useful.

· Bathrooms cannot be found on every floor.

· There is no faculty bathroom.

· Places to find safe refuge in case of an emergency have not been structured.

· The gym is severely deficient in height and size and in terms of available facilities.

· Need a gym classroom.

· Teachers’ lounge is unused. Teacher offices / workroom would be useful.

· Fab. Lab for all school use would be very useful.

Concluding remarks

At this stage the general discussion of the meeting was concluded without plans for immediate future action with the group assembled. A follow-up meeting was discussed for consideration further along in the design process.

END OF MEETING NOTES

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by: / K. Hirth
encl: / 1301_agenda_130311_ILT.pdf