Incorporate the voice of staff and students into the school design process

When the Class of 2021 at Putnam City High School was asked where they wanted to hold their prom, district administrators anticipated suggestions for several scenic locations in Oklahoma City.

But their request came as a pleasant surprise to the staff: The students chose to hold their prom at nearby James L. Capps Middle School, a then-new building in Putnam City Schools.

The school, which opened in 2020, is 38 hectares in size and features a spring-fed stream that passes under a glass sky bridge that connects different wings of the building. With its tall glass windows and large indoor gathering areas, Capps is a fountain pride for the community.

“It’s become a destination for all of our schools,” said Putnam Superintendent Fred Rhodes. “It’s off the charts cool.”

Enthusiasm for the building can be attributed to the district’s efforts to include student and staff voices in the school’s design process, Rhodes said.

Students and staff “live in the building day in and day out. They know what’s important to them and what will work,” she said. “When you’re involved in the design, it adapts to what you need.”

As districts across the country renovate schools or build new ones, they are increasingly using formal ways to gather input from the people most connected to the spaces: staff and students.

In some ways, that feedback process can slow down a project, say architectural firms and school administrators. But above all it is a positive trend, they add, because it guarantees the confidence that the new spaces will have maximum use.

Creating ideal spaces for core academic learning is a major driver of school design and input efforts. But at the request of school communities, non-academic elements are also emerging, such as cultural features and comprehensive support for the child.

Texas’ Austin Independent School District, for example, opened Eastside Early College High School in 2021 with modernized spaces that also highlight the school’s historic importance to the community. The school was built on the site of the original LC Anderson High School, which served Austin’s African-American community for 82 years before closing in 1971 as apefforts of the art of desegregation.

The school’s hilltop site offers views of Austin’s business district and a walking path connects it to Austin Community College. Other highlights include a community center within the school and a gallery with the history of LC Anderson High School and items of historical significance.

Global design firm Perkins & Will worked with the district on the design, as well as the George Washington Carver Museum and Austin History Center to help create images of LC Anderson School’s history that are displayed within the campus, according to the district.

Here, we take a closer look at how the design of two schools incorporated community input.

Capps High School

Rhodes says that as much as he visits schools in his role as Putnam’s superintendent, he doesn’t know exactly what students and staff need unless he asks them.

For the construction of Capps Middle School, which houses about 900 students in grades 6 through 8, two separate voter-approved bonds helped finance the construction, Rhodes said. The design process began in 2017 and the project cost just over $48 million.

To gather feedback from stakeholders, the district worked with design firm DLR Group on outreach to not only middle school students, but elementary and middle school students as well.

Many who provided input asked for a variety of spaces where they could work independently, in small groups and in larger classes, Rhodes said.

“What you see today at Capps Middle School is a really flexible school, because you can go into a space by yourself and work on a project or an assignment, or you can go out into a more open area and meet with a group. collaboration,” he said.

Another suggestion called for teacher workrooms to be placed in each of the school’s three graded sections or “neighborhoods.” This design puts teachers and administrators at each grade level closer to their classrooms, and students can more easily look to their teachers for support, Rhodes said.

Workrooms also give grade-level teachers space for planning and collaboration, she said. In previous school designs he is aware of, teachers often stayed in one classroom all day and used that classroom as a work and teaching space, leaving them little opportunity to mingle with peers.

“You’re going to have a better product if you give people a chance to contribute,” Rhodes said.

In a survey conducted by DLR Group in the spring of 2022, 80% of students agreed that the design of the neighborhood made them feel that learning was valued. And 70% said being part of a neighborhood made them want to work hard. As for teachers, 75% said the neighborhood design helped students engage in collaborative learning projects.

Tim Shimp, educational learning designer at DLR Group and a former school superintendent, said the company wants to make sure it not only brings innovation to school design, but that a building “really reflects the needs and the preferences of the end user”. .”

To gather that input, Shimp said, the company creates committees of students and staff representing different levels and functions. Those groups can participate in workshops, site visits and other information-gathering activities, he said.

The technology allows designers and school leaders to simulate potential designs so they can assess traffic flow, stairwell placement and safety issues, he said. Attention is also paid to how spatial design contributes to mental and physical health, which in turn affects student achievement and growth.

“As designers, it’s also understanding what are the challenges and barriers, and what are the anxieties they have, and how can we address that through design?” Shimp said.

“I think when we can know the barriers and the challenges and the dreams and the aspirations on the front end, we’re not going to bring a design where they say, ‘Well, you’ve missed the mark,'” Shimp said of the process of collaboration with school and district administrators.

Midtown High School

A renovation and addition to Atlanta’s Midtown High School incorporated, at the request of the school community, design elements specific to the school’s racially and economically diverse culture. Some of these elements include an outdoor plaza for community gatherings and a “care closet” to store donated products for students and families.

The reform of the historic building of the 1920s, completed in 2021, it was designed by an international firm of architects Cooper Carry.

The new four-story design connected two existing buildings and enclosed the courtyard in the center of the campus. The addition includes spaces dedicated to engineering and technology, with laboratory and instructional space, a flexible robotics lab and an engineering drawing room.

Sophia Tarkhan, Cooper Carry’s pre-K-12 study leader, said each school has its own character and culture. That means it’s important for designers to engage with the school community in renovation and construction plans so planners can develop “a unique experience for students in that community based on their culture, their identity,” he said. Tarkhan.

As part of the design process, the company engages stakeholders through surveys, focus groups and open houses, Tarkhan said.

Maureen Wiechert, associate director of the company’s pre-K-12 study, said this approach “helps build community support for the project,” with engagement activities tailored for each project.

“It’s not like a one-time process.”