By Ann Etchison, Virginia ASCD
Recently I spent a day visiting the physical spaces inhabited by the students and educators of Manassas Park City Schools in Northern Virginia—a revamped learning community more than ten years in the making envisioned by educators, the School Board, the community, and a group of architects. I thought I would be writing about this rather sleek concept of how/where school design and instruction intersect, but I’m stuck at the keyboard with more thoughts about engaging and caring school cultures, program-based school design, effective instruction and inspirational leadership. Perhaps the intersection occurs where these four ingredients of effective schools overlap—a recipe of complementary efforts with a common focus on what’s best for children’s academic, emotional, social, and physical health. I’m reminded of ASCD’s Whole Child campaign and think this school division epitomizes its tenets.
The story of Manassas Park Superintendent Tom Debolt and the School Board’s mission to create community investment in a vision for quality education is well chronicled by University of Virginia Professor Daniel Duke in his 2008 book, The Little School System That Could: Transforming a City School District. I won’t delve into that story in this post, but suffice it to say that since the mid nineties, Dr. DeBolt has led a reform effort that transformed the school-community culture, raised student achievement, and created wide support for physical learning spaces designed to foster a caring and creative learning community.
One of the goals within the system’s plan includes providing world-class facilities for all students, and in the last ten years, Manassas Park has replaced each existing school facility with a new building and added a pre-K facility. Interestingly, planning the educational program for each of these schools began well before the school was designed and built. The instructional program drove the design, and the architects listened to the educators to inform their work. At the elementary level, school staff chose a parallel block schedule to optimize learning, and the schools were designed to support the schedule, which allowed for small group instruction in core subjects, common planning for teachers, and dedicated time for both physical and arts education.
The newest school, Manassas Park Elementary School and Pre-K addition, opened weeks ago and exemplifies the school system’s focus on design that enhances instruction and positive school climate. Similar to the other facilities, the interior is bathed in natural light, wide and inviting stairwells, and common areas for students to gather; the library serves as a central hub. All schools employ the concept of “passive supervision” with interior glass that promotes both an openness but also a sense of ever-present supervision. Teachers belong to a teacher cluster space that includes a person space, group meeting space, and kitchenette. In this gold LEED environmentally friendly school, design includes solar tubes throughout that maximize natural lighting, a rainwater harvesting system, and a geo-thermal heating and cooling system. Moreover, the instructional program incorporates teaching students about the systems used in the school and wall plaques throughout the building explain reasons behind each with computer monitors that provide energy usage data to the entire school community. Physical and arts education serve as an integral part of the school schedule, and every student learns to play an instrument during the upper elementary years.
Interestingly, this is not a wealthy community full of parents with advanced degrees. Half of the very diverse student population qualifies for free or reduced lunch, and many have felt the pains of economic recession and home foreclosure. But the proud investment in the public education system looms large, as witnessed by the fact that 1000 people showed up on the last Friday in April for the official move to the new school. Teachers, parents, community members, administrators, high school students, and most of the staff of the architectural firm that designed the school joined forces in what Superintendent DeBolt described as the educational equivalent of a barn raising and completed the move in less than two hours.
School buildings deteriorate and have to be replaced or community growth mandates the need for new structures. Children enter those buildings, look around, and decide whether they feel valued and welcome. Teachers often spend as much if not more time in their respective school buildings than they do anywhere else, and a community speaks volumes through the leaders it chooses, the programs it creates, the culture it nourishes, and the physical spaces it designs for learning.
Last week the House of Representatives passed a bill intended to funnel millions of dollars into each state coffer to promote healthy educational spaces for children to learn. It’s exciting to picture more schools like the ones I saw in Manassas Park that promote the development of the Whole Child through innovative and effective program design, learning-focused school culture, high quality teaching and leadership, and valued community support.
I’m curious about school facility design processes in other communities, especially in the midst of an economic recession. What other factors not included in this post should influence school design? How have people and available resources worked to create learning-focused spaces for children and/or what obstacles must be overcome?
Ann Etchison (@ann1622) is the Executive Director of Virginia ASCD (@vascd).
