Needs Identified Through Facility Study
Safety – Currently, not all students are “under one roof.” Students go to the “north buildings” for middle school special education, weights, art, agriculture, and welding classes.
Having the “north buildings” and the Youth Center used as “detached” classroom spaces does not allow all students and staff to be under one roof. This is problematic when there is a threat (intruder, vicious animal, chemical threat) on the exterior of the building. There is strength, security, and mental comfort provided by being together during a crisis.
Due to students transiting from the main building to these “detached” buildings, select school doors must be open during the school day, creating a heightened security risk. 148 students transit between the buildings each day.
Students and staff transiting over the ice and snow and during inclement weather presents a physical safety risk in the form of slip, trips, and falls.
Traffic is also a risk to students and staff transiting back and forth to the north buildings.
Inclusion – Life Skills and middle school special education students are not in the same building as regular education students, as they are currently served in the Youth Center. The girls locker room has one restroom stall, which is inadequate.
The Life Skills Program Students greatly benefit from the additional support received by being integrated members of the school community. The best practice in an education setting is to provide for “full inclusion” of special education students within the general school population.
The district makes every effort to have Life Skills Students in the main building as much as possible. Having a corridor linking their classroom to the rest of the building would provide for greater connectivity to the general student population.
The junior high special education classroom is also currently located in the north building. Physically segregating special education students in a separate building hinders inclusion and sends the wrong message to those students, their parents, and the community.
Learning Areas – Our current learning areas for agriculture, art, industrial technology, robotics, and welding could be improved to provide a better learning experience for our students.
Some of our most successful programs, with the highest rates of student participation and which hold great career opportunity potentials for our students including: agriculture (FFA), robotics, welding, and industrial technology have small and outdated learning spaces.
Improving and modernizing these learning spaces for our students would help promote these programs to our students and enrich their learning experience. The district might also be able to offer more program offerings in these career and technical fields, if additional space and more modern equipment is available.
Investing in the spaces where our students can be exposed to career opportunities in “the trades” is a strong and practical investment in our students.