USD 253 Emporia Board of Education members received a first-hand demonstration on educational redesign efforts at Logan Avenue Elementary School Wednesday evening.
The board’s meeting began with a unique team exercise — led by Logan staff and students — which included greetings, physical activity and exercises to reduce stress. Logan Avenue Principal Jessica Griffin says these are just some of the examples of how the school is creating a more family-oriented learning environment.
One of the new initiatives includes looping — keeping a specific teacher with the same group of kids longer than one year. Griffin says the looping process allows the students to become more comfortable and excel within the classroom.
Griffin says the redesign efforts are already yielding results as all intermediate grades recently participated in predictive testing scoring well above the state average in multiple categories. Looking forward, a major goal in the coming year for Logan staff is to provide their students with further access to the arts.
In other business HTK Architects, the architecture firm aiding in the district’s improvement efforts, and district staff once again resumed discussions on a new early learning facility. An eight-person team, consisting of district staff, early learning task force members and HTK representatives recently conducted site visits to early learning facilities in Overland Park, Maize and Kansas City.
During the tours, team members had the opportunity to ask questions and gain insight into the ideas which worked and did not work for each facility. During the meeting team members discussed many of the safety, architectural and simplistic details which stood out to them at each facility.
Board member Doug Epp says he was awestruck by the sheer amount of thought that went into every aspect of the building process at some facilities.
According to Zac Snethen of HTK Architects, the tours also help to create a network of neighboring facilities the district can reach out to for guidance as the project’s refinement process continues. The future of a new Early Learning Facility does hinge on local voters voting to pass the $78 million facility improvement bond during the Nov. 5 election. If the bond were not to pass, board members have expressed capital outlay spending may be required in that situation.
The USD 253 Board of Education will reconvene Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7 pm inside the Mary Herbert Education Center.
