Bigger, better schools

By Johnna Pinholster

July 19, 2008 10:04 pm

— VALDOSTA — An ever growing population has had the Valdosta City School and Lowndes County School systems expanding their horizons and schools by leaps and bounds.
At the beginning of the 2008 school year LCS will celebrate the grand opening of Westside Elementary School, while VCS will open the doors to students at S.L. Mason.
Both schools and the VCS addition at Sallas-Mahone are state of the art and ready to accommodate students.

• Consolidation and Expansion (VCS)

Construction on the 130,000 square foot S.L. Mason kindergarten through fifth-grade school began in February 2007.
Now less than a month before the Valdosta City School begins classes, William Aldrich, VCS director of Facilities and Maintenance, is busy making sure the school is ready.
The classrooms could be open for occupancy tomorrow, Aldrich said, but the driveway for the school buses and a few minor things could be pushing the Aug. 8 deadline for the first day of school.
“We might have to improvise until it gets done but I feel like we will get it done,” Aldrich said.
Sixty-nine classrooms, a media center, gym and cafeteria will be able to handle more than 1,100 students.
The $15 million project located at 821 W. Gordon St. was funded through SPLOST and combines students from the old S.L. Mason and West Gordon elementary schools, Aldrich said.
Half of the fourth and fifth-grade students will go to S.L. Mason in the fall while the rest will go to Sallas-Mahone Elementary School. Both S.L. Mason and Sallas-Mahone will now serve kindergarten through fifth-grade students.
The Valdosta Early College Academy will take up residence in the old S.L. Mason school in 2009 while Valdosta State University’s football program will call the school home this fall.
“West Gordon has been demolished and no longer exists,” Aldrich said.
To accommodate the fourth and fifth-graders scheduled to attend Sallas-Mahone, 24 classrooms were added to the elementary school, Aldrich said.
The $3.5 million construction at Sallas-Mahone was also covered by SPLOST.
“Both schools have about the same square footage now,” Aldrich said.
S.L. Mason and the Sallas-Mahone addition will be furnished with brand-new technology and furniture. With the addition at Sallas-Mahone the elementary school will also be able to accommodate more than 1,100 students.
While there is room to add more classrooms if needed — at least three or four more classrooms to each campus — Aldrich said the schools should accommodate the student body for at least three or four more years.
The modular classrooms formerly located at S.L. Mason have now been moved to the high school.
This summer Aldrich said he has been fortunate to have the help of Valdosta High football coaches and players to help with the moving of equipment and furniture.
“They did everything I asked and the kids got paid well, so they earned a little money,” Aldrich said.
Many of the teachers, Aldrich said, have been in the classroom since July 15, getting ready for the fall arrival of students.

• Opening New Doors on Old Ground (LCS)

Construction on the Westside Elementary School began in January of 2007, said Mike Powers Lowndes County School System Executive Director of Facilities and Operations.
The two story, 51 classroom school located on James Road is a mixture of old and new.
When planning for the new 126,000 square foot school, Powers said, LCS decided instead of going for the lowest cost build, to invest in a building that would stand the test of time.
“It’s not the lowest cost product, but we put in better products that will last the long haul,” Powers said. “We’ve found that if you spend a little bit more up front you’ll get a bigger payback.”
The $15 million project was funded through SPLOST and will be able to accommodate more than 800 students when it opens Aug. 4.
The decision to build a two-story wing, where the classrooms are housed, was made because of the size of land available. Classrooms, cafeteria, media center, gym and playground were a lot of buildings to put on 15 acres, Powers said.
“With that big of a school you can run out of land quick,” Powers said.
Two buildings were saved from the old Westside High School, Powers said.
The gymnasium and music room have been renovated but are a leftover piece of LCS history. The L-shape design of the classroom wing helps divide the playground areas for the kindergarten through fifth grade school.
The entrances for the bus and parent pick-up and drop-off will be separate, with parents entering off of James Road and buses using a side road.
To keep distractions to a minimum while students are in the classrooms the common areas; media center, cafeteria, art room and gym, were given a separate wing.
“The classrooms are 20 percent larger than the state minimum and each classroom has a restroom and a sink with a bubbler,” Powers said.
Teachers have said that the added benefit of having a bathroom and water fountain not located in a hallway will cut out at least 20 minutes of wasted time each day, Powers said.
The classrooms are not grade selective either, fifth grade students could be moved into a former first grade classroom without major changes being made.
Making environmentally friendly impacts on the area was another goal for the new school, Powers said.
Light fixtures will turn on and off as students and teachers leave classrooms and hallways and the air conditioner will be monitored to ensure when the air is cut down during breaks and weekends.
The green roof, a feature that may have some scratching their heads, is considered a cool roof, Powers said, and helps reflect light.
Parents and guests wanting to visit or pick up students at Westside will only be allowed in through the front entrance and won’t make it past the foyer unless they are given clearance by the front desk, Powers said.
The school is a replacement for Parker Mathis Elementary but more than 200 students will also be relocated to Westside from Dewar Elementary.
Parker Mathis will now be the home of the Horizon Academy and the system’s alternative school, Powers said.

• State of the Art

VCS Director of Technology Mark Swift said that S.L. Mason and the new addition at Sallas-Mahone will have an abundance of new technology for the students to interact with come August.
“In every classroom we’re putting in interactive boards. These particular boards are Promethean,” Swift said. “The Promethean board is pretty durable and has a lot of software that is based on Georgia Performance Standards and has a lot of resources for the teachers to use.”
The interactive board will be the focal point of the room, placed on top of the normal whiteboard, with a projector pointed at it, Swift said.
“Their television, closed circuit, DVD, VCR, all those things will then be shown through the projector,” Swift said. “We won’t actually have a television set in the classrooms at the new school, everything is going to be on the big screen.”
Westside will also have interactive boards in each classroom. The school’s facilities will be equipped with SMART boards and up to eight computers in each classroom.
“Elementary age kids respond real well to the boards,” Powers said. “If they are learning to count money they can go up and touch nickels and dimes and move them.”
Interactive boards keeps students engaged as information passes across the screen. Students are encouraged to come up and interact with the board, answering questions on the board with a pen, Swift said.
While other schools within the VCS system have interactive boards, S.L. Mason will be the first school to have a personal amplification system in each classroom, Swift said.
“Each teacher actually has a microphone that they wear and speakers that have been put in the ceiling of each classroom, so then everything the teachers says is then amplified,” Swift said.
Starting out in special education classrooms for students that are hearing impaired, every classroom at Westside will be equipped with an amplification system as well.
“A lot of people think, well we didn’t have that when I was in school,” Swift said. “But when we were in school, we didn’t have six or seven power supplies running and the air conditioner running, all this technology creates a lot of noise and it’s hard for the teachers to hear the students and for the students to hear the teachers.”
The new addition at Sallas-Mahone will also have the amplification system.
“Just the fact that the students will be able to hear improves their performance,” Swift said. “All this technology needs to be in every classroom in the system, but we just have to start somewhere.
Swift said while teachers will definitely be able to begin educating their students on the first day of school, he is hesitant to promise that all of the new technology will be installed come Aug. 8.
Last week was spent putting up the interactive boards and amplification systems at Sallas-Mahone and Swift hopes at the start of next week to continue installation at S.L. Mason.
Along with the computer labs, Swift said the mobile computer carts called COWS (computers on wheels) will be available for classrooms.
COWS at LCS will also be available for teachers in the event teachers need computers for each student.
The wiring at Westside will be able to move forward as the technology advances as well without the need for rewiring. The rapid run cable has connector ends that can be switched out to fit different technological advances over time, Powers said.
Keeping VCS and LCS on the same track technologically will help students that may switch between systems during their school tenure, Swift said.
“The more common things we have between the schools, the more we can all stay in line the better these students will be and they won’t have to adjust to new technology and different set-ups,” Swift said.

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