New elementary school slated for West M district

ZANESVILLE – The West Muskingum school board recently approved the construction project of the new elementary school during a special meeting.

The project is slated to cost $15 million, consisting of state funds, said Bill Harbron, West Muskingum superintendent. Quandel Enterprises is the company heading up the construction, and the project is being done in conjunction with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.

The new school will replace Falls Elementary School and will be built just west of that school.

The school itself will be a blended learning-style building, with kindergarten, first- and second-graders in classes together and third- and fourth-graders in classes together. And the classrooms will be “learning pods,” with several smaller learning studios off a single main room per class.

Learning studios attached to the learning community within each pod will be used for different purposes — one will be for quiet reading or work, one will be for group projects, and some can be for math or science work. Those classroom-like studios will be connected to one another through French doors that can be opened for more space or closed for privacy.

Work stations within the learning pods will be designed to accommodate the students. Plans are included in the learning centers to make the students feel more at home and willing to learn.

The design hasn’t varied much since the initial conception last summer, Harbron said. Another office was added, and the design would probably change in small ways throughout the construction process.

“The building itself is under budget,” he said, so there is some room to vary the plans slightly.

Construction is scheduled to begin April 1 at the district’s main campus along Kimes Road.

This type of multi-age model would give more students access to more of their teachers’ time and attention and allow teachers to work at individual students’ levels, Harbron said.

Other school districts in the state are moving toward the same model, including Beaver Local School District and North Ridgeville City Schools.

Harbron and others said they think the model will work in part because the district is already doing it — four teachers at Falls Elementary School teamed up two years ago to provide an education for first-graders and kindergartners.

ksnyder2@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

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