Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Facility Issues - Friday, July 17, 2009

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Proceedings of the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Facility Issues

District No. 2, Yellowstone County

High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

Billings, Montana

July 17, 2009

 

 

The Subcommittee met on Friday, July 17, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. in the Lincoln Center. Trustees Barbara Bryan, Peter Gesuale and Kathy Aragon were present. The purpose of the meeting was a WebEx with Fielding Nair International (FNI).

 

Mr. Nair and Mr. Fielding were reached by phone and gave a presentation similar to the one at the meeting on June 26. They explained that they work closely with teachers and parents. They try to find the overall district site vision and how to get the most “bang for the buck.” They expose people to new ways of thinking and determine where our community wants to be on the scale of innovativeness. They will send a report for the committee’s perusal which will include the surveys and workshops used. They try to create learning communities, breaking down larger schools into smaller learning communities. They are more educationally driven than architecturally driven.

 

FNI was asked about the difference between FNI learning communities and the open architecture design, which has not worked well for School District 2. The difference is that their designs are based on what teachers like and need to do their jobs and to what extent space is preventing that. There are 20 different models of learning. They start by connecting space with use.

 

They went over their curriculum mapping and EEFI (Educational Facilities Effectiveness Instrument) which looks at educational adequacy with architecture. They take things that matter from an educational standpoint. Measuring can be correlated with other things like income, test scores, need to measure educational outcomes. This information can be reviewed at www.goodschooldesign.com.

 

Trustee Gesuale stated some of our schools may be located in the wrong places. FNI can do a site matrix analysis which takes into consideration community connections, land issues, large enough sites. We need to start with visioning so everyone is at the same place and excited to move forward. We need to plan for the future. This could help with the financial problems of the district as well.

 

Kathy Aragon asked about involvement with city planning and how to get more support from the community.

 

Barb Bryan will talk with FNI more for a sense of timing, schedule, cost, etc.

 

Peter Gesuale asked for some detail on the site matrix design process.

 

Trustee Aragon will be out of town for two weeks.

 

The approval of minutes was postponed until the next meeting.

 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:05 a.m.

 

 

 

 

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Nancy Coe, Recorder