Tim Culver, Superintendent, Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District
Introduction
It was expressed to me that there was a plan presented in the referendum in the fall of 2014 to move the District Office from its current location into a space in the new 9th Grade Center. This space would someday be converted into about 8 classrooms (serving 200 students) “when the high school grew larger.”
Two issues emerged that are causing us to wonder if this remains the best course of action. We discussed these issues with the School Board on March 21 and April 11, 2016.
- The ‘8 classroom block’ was not designed last spring (spring 2015) in such a way as to accommodate the spaces necessary to permit the District Office and all auxiliary services to function. We had been in talks with EUA (the architects) on how to redesign the interior space and also on creatively seeking ways to accommodate services of the District Office in various locations elsewhere. It could work conceptually; though there will be some design costs to redraw the interior specs. Much more significantly, there will be significant costs to equip this “new D.O.” as most furniture would have to be replaced and/or built in as casework in more compact spaces. Concerns have been expressed about when all this interior casework and walls will need to be demolished and rebuilt in 10 or 15 years to convert the space back to 8 classrooms. It begs the question of where would the District Office move then.
- On February 22, 2016, the UW Applied Population Laboratory prepared projections on district growth were presented to the School Board. This indicates that the middle schools will exceed their “maximum capacity” by 2019 but level off to between about 20 and 50 students above maximum capacity. Keep in mind “maximum capacity” is not “effective capacity.” This is problematic in terms of crowding in the near future. If we could find a way to serve 100 to 200 students in some way besides at the current middle school sites it could resolve this problem. (See Appendix 1)
What if we built the ‘8 classroom block’ of space in the 9th Grade Center into instructional space to accommodate 100-200 middle school students?
This could provide two significant benefits.
- Financially, there would be no need to go to referendum to add on to the middle schools for at least 10 years (given current projections); a considerable relief to taxpayers. In addition, the cost to create school space would be the same or likely even less than to implement a district office.
- Educationally, it would provide an opportunity to create an innovative model of personalized learning - - a sort of laboratory of best 21st Century educational practice, potentially scalable in the future. This could be a sort of “magnet school” possibly with some sort of theme that middle-level students and parents could apply to attend if interested; an alternative to the traditional middle-level program. If it became really popular and successful in producing highly skilled students, the programming could possibly be expanded to “school-within-school” models at either or both middle schools. Further, it would likely push the opportunity for personalized learning up into 9th grade and higher. Ultimately, we could offer students and families an option for a more traditional style or a more personalized style and create programming to meet that desire. Starting small and thoughtfully, we could do it really well.
What does a “personalized learning school” look like?
They vary widely, customized to each community, but have certain common principles. Please read Attachment 2 for some diverse examples of schools and districts that have been doing this: Lighting the Path to Personalized Learning: Inspiring Stories from Next Gen Schools.
Briefly, personalized learning means learning experiences for students tailored to their individual developmental needs, skills, and interests. Personalized learning does not typically include bell schedules, grade levels, or periods of everyone taking the same subject at the same time for the same number of hours or days in typical closed off classrooms. It includes the following key elements:
- Learner Profiles: Students' strengths & areas for improvement, motivation, and goals are visible to them and their teacher/advisor. Profiles are constantly refreshed.
- Personal Learning Paths: Each student follows a path through curriculum content and skills in ways that work best for him or her. Though students' paths vary, the destination is the same - clear, high expectations for college and career readiness.
- Competency-based Progression: Student learning is continually assessed against clearly defined expectations & goals. Each student advances as soon as s/he demonstrates mastery.
- Flexible Learning Environment: Time, space, roles and instructional modes flex with the needs of students and teachers rather than being fixed variables.
Certain aspects of these practices can be implemented in any classroom. However, implementing such innovation at a school-wide level is challenging. It’s hard to keep the Boeing 777 flying daily routes while re-engineering it at the same time. A small “laboratory school” could show us the best way to implement this in an “Oak Creek-Franklin” way of serving students and families well. Upon creation, it might look like any or none of the many different schools described in Lighting the Path to Personalized Learning: Inspiring Stories from Next Gen Schools.
After consideration of the above issues and a presentation on the possibilities for an innovative Personalized Learning Center, on April 11, 2016, the School Board approved this motion:
To authorize administration to proceed with the planning and development of a Personalized Learning Based Middle-Level Program to be housed at the 9th Grade Center in lieu of the District Office
Next steps / considerations
- We need to assemble a small team of forward-thinking educators - pioneers - with interest and creativity to work with over the next year or so, to learn and visit other schools with experience/history, and ultimately design a high quality, innovative program (and space).
- The District Office remains in a building that is too large and which will need maintenance over time. We’d need to develop a plan to deal with this. However, I would rather program students into a prime school space and keep our offices in a dated building in order to achieve great savings to taxpayers and, most importantly, to innovate how schools of the future might best operate.
- The first conceptualizations of the space:
PHASE I / Draft 1 (what would be finished when the site opens in 2017)
This view is looking from southeast to northwest. This is the north west corner of the building under construction with the long side/window wall (left) fronting Howell. The space has a segregated entrance/vestibule (upper left) which was a feature of the “district office” idea but serves ideally to create a separate environment from the high school/9th grade. Phase I includes the vestibule, 4 restrooms, one large learning space which opens into the commons and two small learning spaces, storage, one wet lab, and plumbing for a second. Floors will be polished concrete and the ceiling will be open with pendant lighting for a semi-industrial feel and complete flexibility for future design/equipment needs. The only interior connection to the 9th Grade Center are the doors on the south.
PHASE II (this is one possible vision of what the space could become. The design team will need to work with the architects to create the actual space based upon program design decisions made during the 2016-2017 year.
- Proposed Calendar
2016-2017: Small design team of interested educators and community business leaders assembles, learns, dreams, visits, explores, and designs the program to drive the design of the space.
2017-2018: Interior is finished furniture and education is provided based upon design decisions, student recruited, staff placed.
August 2018: Program opens with students and staff. May be scaled up.
APPENDIX ONE:
Enrollment / Facility Capacity Projections
APPENDIX TWO:
