Architects, engineers and educational planners checked out Parkview High School last week - the final campus to be reviewed as part of a comprehensive facilities study commissioned by the Little Rock School Board.
The study will be the basis for possible renovations and construction of new schools in the 25,000-student district, the state’s largest.
The Fanning-Howey Associates Inc. architecture/engineering firm of Indianapolis, which is leading the study on all Little Rock School District campuses, will next host a series of community meetings - 46 between March 31 and April 14 - to share findings and preliminary recommendations as well as solicit ideas and insight from audience members.
“We’ll talk about enrollment projections. We’ll talk about capacity of schools,” Troy Glover, an educational planner and project manager for the Little Rock study, said about the public forums.“We’ll give a big-picture overview on the condition of schools, and that will lead up to our giving some options or recommendations about improving schools.”
The recommendations, however, will still be subject to adjustments based on the responses at the community meetings and reaction from school district leaders.
The forums will incorporate the use of technology to collect as much information as possible from parents and other community members. As many as six sessions will be hosted per night by members of the Fanning-Howey led team.
Audience members will be equipped with hand-held devices to record and transmit their responses to questions and proposals posed by the team members. The responses will be instantly collected and tallied, and the results can be used as the basis for further discussion as well as for refining the recommendations.
The Fanning-Howey team, which includes representatives of local architectural firms the Woods Group and Stuck Associates, plans to present its proposed capital improvement plan to the School Board by early May.
At Parkview, which first opened in 1968, Glover and three architects first inspected a science classroom, an art room and the gym. They took notes and photographs with their tablet computers, and they questioned the teachers about their instructional needs.
“We do amazing work in here,” Les Williams, chairman of the school’s science department, said about his classroom and its activities such as Science Fair, Science Olympiad and Robotics Club.
About a quarter of the science classwork is activity-based, he said. His room includes a couple of computers, an electronic white board, a document camera and hand-held computers with attached probes to support those activities. But all of the modern instruction and equipment are layered on an older infrastructure. The room is cramped with a mix of desks and lab tables. There is only one sink and a limited power supply. The wiring from a no-longer-used projector is hanging from the ceiling.
“A quick look tells you that this room hasn’t changed much since the 1960s and 1970s,” Williams said. “This was made for a time when everybody did the same thing, at the same time. Science has changed a lot since then. There is a lot going on in here, and having it redesigned for the modern approach for how we attack science nowadays would be optimal.”
In Gail King’s windowless art room, space is even more at a premium. File cabinets are topped with vertical storage boxes, which are topped with student sculptures. Plastic boxes of art supplies and manila folders are wedged wherever they fit. Metal storage lockers, makeshift track lighting and a light desk help furnish the room. Student tables and chairs are pushed together to create walking space. Art is displayed in the hallway.
“We make it work,” King tells visitors. But she acknowledged that when 20 ninth-graders are in the room, “It’s all legs and arms. It starts getting a little tight.” And, in response to questions, she said it would be “heaven” to have natural lighting, 20-bulb track lighting, horizontal and vertical storage, and better ventilation.
“What we found working all over the country is that art teachers are so creative that it doesn’t matter what space we give you - you will figure it out,” Fanning-Howey architect George Kacan told King. “Just looking at the deficiencies in this room from an educational perspective - obviously it is too small. The equipment is outdated. There is definitely not enough sink space. I’m sure cleanup is a problem, and you are probably losing time for instruction.”
The Fanning-Howey team, which will be paid $974,260plus expenses for its work, has found in the Little Rock schools the same kinds of building issues that are typical in school systems nationwide, Glover said. He said the team is eager to report on those issues and the possible solutions.
“We would really encourage the public to come to hear about our findings and hear the recommendations because a lot of assumptions are made about schools,” he said.
“A building externally may look great, but when you get into the internal components of it, then you might see challenges and the problems. There may be a few solutions to correct some of the problems at a facility, and we really want input from the community on what is the best solution from their perspective. Ultimately, we are supporting the community,” he said.
The community meetings are planned for the following times, dates and locations:
March 31
5:30 p.m. - King and Booker elementaries, Metropolitan Career and Technical Education Center.
6:30 p.m. - Dunbar and Horace Mann middle schools. April 1
5:30 p.m. - Otter Creek, Mabelvale and Chicot Primary elementaries.
6:30 p.m. - Dodd Elementary, Mabelvale Middle and Watson Intermediate.
April 2
5:30 p.m. - Baseline, Wakefield and Meadowcliff elementaries.
6:30 p.m. - McClellan High, Geyer Springs and Western Hills elementaries.
April 3
5:30 p.m. - Bale and Wilson elementaries, Parkview High.
6:30 p.m. - Romine Elementary, Hamilton Learning Academy and Henderson Middle.
April 7
5:30 p.m. - Brady, Terry and Roberts elementaries.
6:30 p.m. - McDermott and Fulbright elementaries and Cloverdale Middle.
April 8
5:30 p.m. - Fair Park Early Childhood, Forest Park and Jefferson elementaries.
6:30 p.m. - Hall High, Forest Heights Middle, Williams Elementary.
April 9
5:30 p.m. - Franklin and Pulaski Heights elementaries and Woodruff Early Childhood Center.
6:30 p.m. - Central High, Pulaski Heights Middle and Stephens Elementary.
April 14
5:30 p.m. - Gibbs and Rockefeller elementaries, J.A. Fair High.
6:30 p.m. - Carver and Washington elementaries.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/12/2014