Imagine this, I have spent 55 of my 71 years in elementary, middle or high school buildings. Twelve of these years I was a student, and 43 as a teacher. I have seen a slew of changes during the 55 years of my career but one of the more pressing has been the need for more and more space.
I started first grade in Monument, Kansas, in 1957 having skipped kindergarten. (It wasn’t offered in the Monument School District). Through elementary school, we sat all day at desks, lined up in neat rows. The teacher had a desk in the front of the room. There were pull-down maps of the United States and a world map. Chalk boards lined the wall behind the teacher’s desk. Our desks faced that same long chalkboard wall. Math, English, social studies, reading, science, and handwriting ALL pretty much took place on that wall with an eraser moving quickly across the board between subjects. The teacher and textbooks were the source of information and learning. We only left the room for recess and lunch.
Today, teaching and learning look nothing like the scene of my own elementary and high school years. Today, teachers seldom stand in front of the room all day to impart wisdom and knowledge. Both teachers and students engage in active, hands-on learning. Often, students work in small collaborative groups on science and social studies projects. Small group work is prominent during reading, writing, and math. Discussion groups explore new ideas presented in a shared book students are reading. Collaborative work on science experiments occurs across a week or more. Students work together on the floor, spreading out to make maps during social studies, draw out graphs and charts in math, or work through problems. Younger students often begin the morning on the floor in a large circle as a sharing time or to read a big book together. Students leave the room for art, music, P.E., recess, lunch, as well as special education, language, and social-emotional needs. These wonderful, positive changes in the way students and teachers work in the classroom require more and more space.
As the years moved along in my tenure as a student and teacher, new academic fields opened for students. Art and music programs were added to the curriculum. Band, orchestra, and theatre classes became available. Physical Education became a required class. Many new services and classes for students were added: nurses, physical and occupational therapy, speech/language therapy, Title I reading classes, Reading Recovery for first-grade students struggling to learn to read and write, math intervention, technology classes, k-12 counselors, school psychologists, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), SPED (Special Education/Educational Support for autism, gifted education, etc.). Each of the new academic areas and support services mentioned above require additional space both for teachers and students; however, our USD 489 buildings have stayed the same size, so hallways, custodians’ closets, corners of libraries, closets in classrooms, a cubicle next to a boiler room, a stage in the gym have all morphed into space for students to learn. Space was taken from libraries to squeeze in one or more small cubby holes for the school counselor or reading recovery teacher. Hallways themselves became portable classroom space. It seems every anteroom, booth, chamber, shoebox, and vestibule has been turned into learning spaces out of necessity.
We have entered the second decade of the 21st century. New buildings and classroom design are more important than ever. USD 489 has reached critical mass in providing space for our students and teachers. We need your help to meet the learning needs of all students. Please vote YES on SPACE (HAYS USD 489 BOND ISSUE ON MAY 10TH). For more information on USD 489 current needs for space, go to https://www.usd489.com/article/700246.
Jo Ann Jennings, Hays