New West M school nearly ready to open

ZANESVILLE - Instead of classrooms, it has learning studios. Instead of one teacher teaching 25 students at a time, seven staff members will teach and work with 120 students. Instead of leaking ceilings and broken air conditioning, it will be a clean, cool, dry building.

After two years of planning, designing, community feedback, studies and construction, the new West Muskingum Elementary School is scheduled to be open for the 2016-2017 school year.

From the outside, around the dirt, construction and equipment, it looks like a school. On the inside, though the gymnasium and cafeteria are immediately recognizable (if crowded with more construction equipment and furnishings), its personality is just beginning to appear.

Views from the windows could be good, if the old Falls Elementary building weren't in the way. Superintendent Bill Harbron said when the old building is demolished and piles of dirt are leveled off, the views will be completely unobstructed.

"You'll be able to see a clear view of the high school," he said.

The walls are hues of white and gray with accents of primary colors — red, blue and yellow. Each learning community (there are five, one for each grade K-4) is accented with a different color: red for kindergartners, blue for first graders, orange for second graders, green for third graders and purple for fourth graders. The bathrooms in each learning community are decorated with tiles painted by the students themselves.

Some walls will be covered in glass, allowing students to see the pipes and inner workings of a wall. The server room is transparent, allowing students to see the technology and wires. These are other, non-traditional ways to encourage learning, Harbron said, by showing students what the machines in a building look like and how they work.

A stage sits in one corner of the cafeteria, and behind the stage are the art and music rooms, so students who are performing have easy access to any equipment or costumes needed.

The school is supposed to feel less like an institution, Harbron said, and more like a home.

Seven staff members, including aides, teachers and intervention specialists, will cover the learning for each grade. Though the learning communities are built for 120 students, enrollment is currently showing an average of 115 students for fall. And not all students will always be taught in the same room at the same time — learning studios off the main area will allow students to complete projects or receive quiet instruction.

The original plan, Harbron said, was to combine grades, such as first- and second-grade students and third- and fourth-grade students, learning in the same communities. But teachers told administrators it would be too hard to learn and effectively teach different sets of learning essentials at the same time, as each grade must meet different requirements by the end of the year.

So the design was modified to one grade per learning community.

"Every learning community is basically self-functioning," Harbron said.

Each are identical, and each have interior doors as well as exterior doors and access to the playground, he said. All doors can be locked from the inside by the office, in case of intruders.

The learning communities are designed to be collaborative, Harbron said. Some teachers have already been working together to maximize student growth, and they can't wait until they're all together in the new building.

Jayla Lentz, first-grade teacher, said she's excited to be working in close conjunction with her colleagues during the upcoming school year. They have already been switching students around based on their needs — having one large community will be beneficial.

"We're challenging the kids who need challenged," she said.

Plus, being in a new, functional building will be excellent.

"From what I've seen, they've made the building really kid-friendly," she said.

Beth Carpenter, Falls Elementary principal, said staff members have been preparing for the move for weeks already, though it will not occur until August. Staff took a tour of the new building and liked what they saw so far.

Carpenter said they could see where students will go, where supplies will go and how to organize their own space. Carpenter will move to the new building as K-2 principal, and Diane Davis, principal of Hopewell Elementary, will be principal for grades 3-4.

Falls Elementary is scheduled to close June 12, and the new school will be open to teachers and staff at the end of August. School will begin Sept. 6.

Phase two of construction, mostly parking lot renovation, will continue through October, Harbron said, but parents will be able to drop off and pick up children.

Part of the building's design, in addition to being attractive to students, is to anticipate educational needs for the next several years.

"What kind of education spaces are you going to need in the future? You just don't know," Harbron said. "These are built to last 40 to 50 years."

ksnyder2@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

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Twitter: @KL_Snyder