New School of Thought: Buildings endeavor to stay ahead of educational evolution

The fundamentals of elementary education are changing. While reading, writing and arithmetic are still the order of the day, many would scarcely recognize the emerging teaching methods in comparison to their own public school education.

As learning methods change, the building environments must follow suit. Gone are the days of white cinderblock walls, a maze of long windowless hallways dotted with doors to cube-shaped classrooms and a single common area doubling as a gymnasium and lunch room as the standard educational fare for public schools.

Enter buildings such as Springfield Public Schools’ new nearly $18 million Sherwood Elementary, where, due to its abundance of glass, a person can stand in the entryway and see straight through to the back of the building. Picture colorful studio spaces with multiple teachers in one large room, rollup doors, makerspaces and a variety of seating options modeled after Google Inc.’s headquarters.

“We still have some desks and chairs, but we also have round seats, couches, learning steps and others that allow the kiddos the flexibility to learn where comfortable and best for them,” said Nicole Kimbrough, Sherwood Elementary principal. “It’s a shift in thinking about what’s best for kids.”

Designing the future
With education work comprising 85 percent of its business, Springfield’s largest architecture firm, Sapp Design Associates Architects PC, is on the forefront of the design curve.

“One size doesn’t fit all,” said Jim Stufflebeam, Sapp Design’s vice president and senior project manager. “Buildings must be tailored to the need, the goals, the vision of that district.”

Stufflebeam said Sherwood’s design process was typical from the outset, but included a lot of discussion on educational philosophy. SPS knew the building would be different, but the designs shifted and changed during the process, especially after the hiring of current Superintendent John Jungmann.

“It evolved to meet his goals and his vision,” Stufflebeam said. “Adjustments were made midstream, such as enlarging classroom doorways and adding rollup doors to blend the spaces.

“It’s a balancing process for us. Our design has to follow their educational philosophy while still taking into account structural limitations, budgets and codes.”

While the modified design stayed under Sherwood’s $18 million budget, the changes added roughly $123,000 to the project.

Ben Sapp, communications director for the architecture firm, said new school design is all about targeting the experience for the individual and maximizing the flexibility of the space so it doesn’t limit learning. It’s a new way of thinking the architects at Sapp are learning themselves.  “It’s no longer the cells and bells model,” he said, noting Sapp Design has a team dedicated to following educational trends and interpreting new ways of responding through architecture.

Stufflebeam said it’s his team’s job to help clients understand the options, but ultimately the district decides the project’s direction.

This new school of thought can be costly for districts and tough for contractors to gauge its pricing.

SPS currently is renovating Fremont Elementary, taking new designs even further than Sherwood. In May, the SPS school board rejected a $12.95 million bid from DeWitt & Associates Inc. to renovate the north-side school, saying the bid was $1.3 million over the anticipated budget of $11.4 million for the 73,165-square-foot project. Branco Enterprises Inc. won the contact the following month with a $9.8 million bid.

Thought progression
Why such drastic changes to the fundamentals of public education? Blame the power of collaboration.

“Gone are the days of the sage on the stage. It’s all about being a facilitator on the side and guiding students,” said Ben Hackenwerth, executive director of innovation and information for SPS. “It’s all about collaboration. The nature of the ownership we give students over their education has changed drastically.”

Hackenwerth said teachers work in co-teaching situations, facilitating lessons for groups of students in the studio space, while others might be in a small reading group or sitting on a couch doing a math lesson on their iPad.

As the district’s first one-to-one technology school, Sherwood principal Kimbrough said every student in preschool through second grade has an iPad mini, while all third through fifth graders have Chromebooks.

Hackenwerth said lessons are focused on how students apply knowledge, rather than memorization of facts.

“If you can find the answer on Google, you’re not teaching anything,” he said. “Students need to be able to apply knowledge and principles to real-world problems.”

Hackenwerth believes it’s key not to get stuck in a specific model just because that’s how it always has been done. He admits the changes may seem radical.

“This concept wasn’t born in Springfield,” he said. “We’ve studied other schools who are doing well, and they are designed to enhance collaboration. We want to be authentic in how we engage kids, be on the cutting edge and take that chance.”

While Hackenwerth wishes he could remodel every school in the district, that’s financially unfeasible. For now, teachers are taking steps to enhance collaborative learning despite traditionally designed buildings.

“It’s not just a change of walls and space. It’s a shift in thinking,” Kimbrough said. “We had the benefit of design on our side, but a wall could never stop the evolution of thought.”