Schools conduct maps future; firm to meet with RIDE over bonds

By Jen Cowart
Posted 3/28/18

By JEN COWART It is no secret that Cranston houses some of the oldest school buildings in the state, with Cranston High School East about to turn 100 years old next year. Recently, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) spent one year assessing

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Schools conduct maps future; firm to meet with RIDE over bonds

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It is no secret that Cranston houses some of the oldest school buildings in the state, with Cranston High School East about to turn 100 years old next year. Recently, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) spent one year assessing the condition of all school buildings in Rhode Island. Jacobs Engineering then put forth their recommended high-priority construction and repair needs which forecast $627.6 million in just basic repairs needed. According to RIDE, the statewide cost to bring all school buildings into ideal condition is estimated at $2.2 billion.

To that end, Cranston Public School has partnered with Fielding Nair International (FNI) a world-renowned firm of architects and educators who have been spending their days touring the city’s schools, making note of the things which must be repaired and replaced, but also making note of the spaces that need to be updated for this century’s educational landscape. Additionally, the firm is taking a close look at the building spaces that exist and working to utilize those existing spaces to create a more appropriate educational setting.

At the same time, the district has been hosting a series of community meetings in the hopes of not just sharing the firm’s vision for CPS, but to get feedback from students, teachers, administrators and parents as to the needs they identify, and their vision for a more ideal educational setting for schools which will be ready not just for this 21st century of learners, but for those learners who will be using the schools for many years to come.

The most recent meeting took place at Cranston High School West on Monday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the school library. Less than two dozen people were in attendance from the parent community. Cranston High School West houses approximately 1,500 students daily and more than 100 staff members. Several representatives from the administration at Cranston West and the CPS central office staff were present.

During the day on Monday, FNI met with students and with teachers for separate focus groups and site evaluations in order to get feedback from all parties and perspectives.

Jay Litman, FNI Principal and Rhode Island Studio Director, Sam Hogg FNI Project Manager, Jill Acres FNI Senior Education Consultant, and Ellen Woodsbie FNI Associate Designer, were all present, and brought additional office staff with them to assist in the presentation as well.

The group walked the parents through the timeline of school assessment and data gathering taking place February through May, the presenting of the report and master plan/strategy (June through August) and the next step which will be the public outreach sessions in which they hope to establish a strong basis for the bond, taking place in September.

Litman stated that his team from FNI would be meeting with RIDE this week.

“This new era is big,” he said. “We have very high hopes.”

He also noted that their CPS project blog is now located on the CPS website for all to see (fni.atavist.com/cps-discovery-blog), which explains the workshops being held and the feedback being gathered at each.

The two-hour meeting was very interactive, and asked parent participants to use their phones to weigh in on priorities, learning styles and needs as the team went through their presentation. Slides were shown of FNI projects which have been completed all over the world, some as close as Middletown, and some as far away as Russia, which showed schools on the cutting edge of safety and educational settings and use of space.

“Schools no longer function for the students or the teachers, right down to the furniture. Our schools were designed using the 1839 model. Even the more recent ones were designed using the 1921 Horace Mann model. Nothing has changed,” Litman said. “You have teachers in your elementary schools purchasing more appropriate furniture for students with their own money trying to make the learning spaces more in line with the needs of the students and the needs of the curriculum.”

He compared the educational spaces needed to the current employee spaces of today, such as at Google and other creative, technological enterprises where today’s students might be working in the future.

“Think moveable furniture, yoga balls, bean bags, glassed-in small group rooms, teacher collaboration spaces, think tanks for student collaboration and cafes,” he said. “Think white boards and projection screens. Some classrooms today still use chalkboards and their biggest technological advance is a pull-down movie screen.”

He also noted that many of the teachers teaching today’s students are millennials, teachers who grew up in this age of innovation and technology, who are being cramped in their teaching by facilities stuck in the 1800s, right down to the lack of appropriate HVAC systems and electrical plugs.

“You have students sitting in computer labs using their phones because they are better than the technology that is present in the labs,” he said. “There often aren’t enough plugs in the walls to house the technology needed. School acts as a template to the real world, and we have to get our schools up to speed. Teachers are teaching in a world that does not represent the world they grew up in.”

He showed a slide of the top ten job skills needed for graduates in 2020, which he emphasized is just about one year from now. He asked the parents present to log in on the poll as to which skills they felt were most critical in their current jobs and stated that the current educational settings do not reflect those most critical skills of today, or those needed for 2020 and beyond.

“Those skills weren’t necessarily needed in 1958, but you’re using them today and your students will need them when they graduate,” he said. “Our world has changed and our schools need to also change. We are no longer in a situation where teachers should be standing in the front of the room lecturing to students sitting in uncomfortable seating that is fixed to the floor. Teachers should be facilitators and mentors. Classrooms should be able to transition to fit the needs of the lessons and activities. Learning should be self-directed by students each working to their own abilities and levels. Teachers should be able to work with a whole group or a small group or an individual.”

He showed slides which not only gave examples of what should be seen in schools today, but also showed how it was possible to transform a traditional school space into a 21st Century Learning environment which would engage its students at the optimal level.

Hogg went through a list of 20 Learning Modalities, and asked parents how they themselves learned best, and how their various children learned best. Answers ranged from collaboratively, to using technology for learning, to working one on one with a teacher and beyond.

“Schools are prepared for maybe two of these modalities and learning styles,” he said. “One of them being lecture style. Our goal isn’t to take that away, it’s about giving teachers more tools to work with. When we talked to the students today, they all spoke very highly about the Career and Technical Center’s learning spaces as being engaging, real-life, authentic learning spaces that would be similar to what they’d encounter in their future careers, in the real-world environment. They spoke about how much they looked forward to the interactive, hands-on nature of the instruction and the learning environment at CACTC. We need more of that in all classrooms. All students need that type of engagement and learning.”

In addition to the timeline items that were stated early in the presentation, Litman explained that there were going to be some Pathfinder projects being done over the summer, including the transformation of learning spaces that could be done immediately and could also show the public, the students and staff one small example of what is needed on a larger scale, and why.

As the workshop came to a close, the participants spent the final 40 minutes or so filling out a multi-page evaluation of their school building spaces based on a number of different categories from aesthetics to technology, to bathroom spaces, outdoor spaces and eating spaces, to whether or not all rooms were with equipped with windows and natural light. The evaluations were scored and collected for further evaluation and data collection.  

A final interactive piece of the presentation took place as guests left the room. They were asked to place colored post-it notes on a board to show things they wished, hoped, loved and to share one “ah-ha” moment as well. Those items were also noted for future reference.

The next upcoming community meeting dates will take place as follows: (All meetings will be held in the schools’ libraries unless otherwise noted.)

April 23: Bain, April 24: Edgewood, Rhodes Barrows, Dutemple (held in the Cranston High School East Media Center), May 7: Park View Middle School, May 8: Orchard Farms, Glen Hills, Stone Hill, Oaklawn (held in the Cranston West Library), May 21: Western Hills Middle School, May 22: Hope Highlands Middle School

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