Students, staff adjusting to DIS

Posted on: Sep 25, 2018

When Delano’s newest school hosts a public open house on Tuesday, Sept. 25, visitors will have an opportunity to explore a learning environment that emphasizes flexibility, efficiency and comfort.

The evening begins with a flag-raising ceremony outside Delano Intermediate School at 6:45 p.m. It continues with a brief presentation in the school commons at 7 p.m. and an official ribbon cutting around 7:15 p.m. The building will then open for self-guided tours until 8:15 p.m.

Students and staff have been acclimating to the space since school began on Sept. 4, and Principal Barry Voight said he was generally pleased with how the new space is functioning.

“Flexibility is the first thing that comes to mind,” Voight said when asked about features of the new school. “The building and the furniture were designed with multiple uses in mind.”

Operable walls

Each classroom has “operable” glass walls bordering the corridor. Teachers can open one or more panels of the wall in order to spread their learning space into the hallways, which are furnished with comfortable chairs, couches, ottomans and group work tables. The walls will also allow teachers to collaborate in certain lessons, and enable direct supervision of students in the hallways.

“We’re still in the stage of building routines and getting to know our classes, but I have already seen a lot of kids using the hallway spaces,” said Voight. “Each grade level is adapting its uses differently, but already I’ve been happy with the degree with which teachers have used those available spaces, the flex lab, the media center classroom and the hallways.”

Another benefit of the operable walls is that they allow abundant natural light to reach nearly every part of the building. Each classroom has one or more windows, and that light flows through the classrooms and into the hallways to create a bright, cheerful atmosphere. There is a financial benefit as well.

“It reduces the amount of lighting that is needed vs. what you see in older buildings,” said Chris Rear, a consultant with ICS who has represented the district throughout the building project. “The lighting itself is LED. That’s more expensive up front, but in terms of operating costs the return on investment is substantial.”

Teachers have had to adjust for noise when the walls are open and classroom microphones are in use, but Voight said student distraction due to the glass walls has been minimal.

“I’ve been somewhat surprised by how little that appears to be a factor,” he said. “As I walk through the hallways I don’t see a lot of kids turning their heads to see what’s going on. So I would say that, at least in the early going, students seem to have adapted really well.”

Rear said the operable wall concept has a somewhat checkered history, but is becoming more popular again recently. When it was tried in the late 1970s and ’80s the accordion-style walls were less user-friendly, did little to block everyday classroom noise and did not admit light.

“These panels are very easy to move. Even though they weight a lot they move with very little effort,” he said. “They’re easy to operate, they allow that light to come through, and when you have to close them off they’re practically soundproof. So they provide a lot of flexibility.”

Efficiency

While natural lighting, dimmers and motion sensors combine to reduce operational lighting costs, highly efficient boilers are also in use. They are tied into the overall heating and cooling system and operate year-round to control humidity and other factors.

Furniture was selected with an eye on efficiency as well. Lunch tables can convert into benches. Office tables glide on wheels so they can be brought wherever there is a need. A minimalist approach means the number of rarely used items in storage is relatively small.

Wings and classrooms

Each grade is housed a different wing, with the central commons acting as a hub that connects the academic wings to the music and gym areas. The layout minimizes disruptions caused by passing classes and the noises that accompany each use.

Classrooms are also geared toward students of specific ages. Fourth- and fifth-grade rooms, for example, include lockers and storage areas so teachers can help students develop organizational skills. The sixth-grade wing includes locker bays outside of classrooms since students switch rooms every hour. This helps to prepare them for the high school setting when they enter seventh grade.

“The facility and the soft structures are designed to support the developmental needs of the students,” said Voight. “We want to prepare our kids for the next level. We’re not going to exactly replicate what’s happening at the next level, but we want to scaffold demands and expectations in developmentally appropriate ways.”

There is also a diversity of furnishings within the classrooms to facilitate learning.

“We have different types of desks in the classrooms,” said Voight. “We have regular seated desks with chairs. We have seated-height desks with stools and we have standing-height desks. We want to make sure that every student is comfortable in their learning environment, and that’s not the same for every kid. So we wanted to provide for differences in desk styles and seating arrangements.”

Safety

Safety is a constant consideration in modern school buildings. Voight said the school has been working closely with law enforcement partners to develop appropriate emergency procedures that work for the new space, with its abundant glass and relatively open nature. Without getting into specifics, he said alternatives to the usual practices have been discussed with staff members.

“We do have the ability to lock down spaces, but we can’t rely solely on facility infrastructure to keep us safe, which I think is true no matter what building you’re in,” he said. “We’re always trying to balance the desire to make the building welcoming, inviting and safe at the same time.”

Other areas

Rear said the building was oriented and configured in order to accommodate future expansion, if that should become a necessity.

“It was laid out in such a way that you could mirror the fourth grade wing that shoots out to the east on the west side of the building,” he said. “There is enough room to do that with minimal site work.”

More immediately, plans are in place to create on a play space on the east side of the building. Indoors, efforts are ongoing to fully implement audio-visual technology that will give staff greater capabilities than they have previously enjoyed through tools like Clevertouch interactive displays.

The music, gym and art areas are in use almost constantly, and Voight said he has observed many students using the window seats in the media center as reading spaces.

“Overall, it’s been pretty good so far. The kids and staff have adapted to something of a new normal,” he said, complimenting in particular the custodial staff, IT coordinator Joe Hitchings and administrative assistants Debbie Findley and Melissa Koch for their help in getting the new school up and running.

“Our theme this year has been ‘Embrace the Discovery,’ because there is a lot we still have to find out about this new space and how best to use it,” Voight said. “The full potential of our equipment and our facility has not yet been realized.”

Post Categories: Intermediate School