Rock Hill schools look to improve existing buildings

Over the next five years, the Rock Hill school district will look to expand and improve all of its buildings and explore whether to construct another elementary school.

The $109 million master plan for the district’s buildings was presented to the school board Monday night by the “Pathfinders,” a team of district employees and community members who were asked to come up with a vision for the next five years of capital needs for the district’s 41 current sites.

“The Pathfinders group has done a thorough job at looking at the needs of the district and prioritizing those to the best of their ability,” Superintendent Kelly Pew said several days after the group’s presentation.

Rock Hill’s greatest challenge, she said, is continually maintaining and improving aging facilities in a way that makes them both safe and efficient, but also that fits into the 21st-century learning environment.

The district owns more than 3.4 million square feet of property valued at more than half a billion dollars. In coming up with their plan, the Pathfinders paid attention to residential and business development, demographic changes, transportation costs and building capacity, among other factors.

The plan includes 51 projects scheduled through 2020.

The plan, as proposed, “will continue the school district’s tradition of having nice facilities,” Pew said.

Basic upkeep

Many of the projects in the plan are the result of natural wear and tear on school buildings.

Northwestern High School, which opened in 1971, needs new brick veneer and new windows on two of its buildings. Under the plan, that would happen in the 2015-2016 year. That same year, Ebinport Elementary, built in the 1940s and 1950s, would get a new roof on much of its building, as would Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies and Finley Road Elementary School in the following school year.

Nine elementary schools, two middle schools and the Applied Technology Center would receive bathroom upgrades during the next five years, while many sites would get driveways or parking lots repaired, or floors replaced.

While these projects may not seem exciting, they’re essential to keeping the schools clean and functional, members of the Pathfinders team said during the board meeting.

Two other large factors in the upkeep category are safety/security and energy management, Pew said.

In the last few years, Rock Hill schools have done a tremendous job upgrading safety and security at the schools, Pew said, including installing new safety vestibules and adding cameras, sign-in systems and other security-related improvements to help keep students and staff members safe.

“These sorts of things will continue to be very important,” Pew said.

The plan calls for $3.82 million in various safety and security upgrades during the next five years.

The district would also continue its push to make schools as energy-efficient as possible by replacing inefficient or outdated equipment with newer, more efficient versions, which would help save both money and resources.

Expanding capacity

One of the main issues the plan seeks to address is the strained capacity at several schools. While some schools, such as Lesslie Elementary and York Road Elementary, are serving less students than their available space, according to district data, others are facing overcrowding.

But, Pew said, that’s not necessarily because there’s not enough instructional space. In many cases, she said, the problem is the school’s cafeteria.

At schools such as Northside Elementary School for the Arts and Ebinport Elementary, the cafeteria is simply not large enough for the number of students. This year, Northside has 555 students and Ebinport has 623 students.

That means lunches have to start very early in the day and go until very late, Pew said, and it means there isn’t a large space for assemblies, performances or school activities.

To address that, the plan calls for a remodeling or adding to several elementary schools, said Brian Vaughan, the district’s facilities director. At some schools, such as Northside, this would mean building a cafeteria onto the existing building. Then, the existing cafeteria space would be updated for instructional use.

Other schools, such as Richmond Drive Elementary and Ebinport, would get new office space, classrooms and “learning suites.”

While simple population shifts are partially to blame for the unbalanced school population, the district’s schools of choice program also is creating larger populations in some schools, Pew said. Specifically, the language immersion programs at Richmond Drive, Ebinport and Rosewood seem to be contributing to large populations there.

Under its schools of choice program, the district has created additional academic programs at certain schools. Parents whose children are zoned for other schools can apply to have them enrolled in an expanded academic program at another school.

Moving forward, Pew said the district may have to look at how those programs are structured and where they’re located.

Or, she said, it’s possible the district may have to look into redrawing attendance zones to balance school populations, something she recognizes can be difficult for some people.

“Anytime you begin having those discussions, it’s really important for parents and community members to have their input heard,” Pew said.

The plan also presents the possibility of building another elementary school. Depending on the growth of the Riverwalk area near Interstate 77 and U.S. 21, it may become necessary to put in an elementary school in that neighborhood. The new school wouldn’t be built until the 2019-2020 school year and would cost $15.9 million, according to the plan.

Creating a modern classroom

Many of the changes proposed in the plan are geared toward creating a 21st-century learning environment, members of the Pathfinders group said Monday night. Through changes in technology, furniture and even the floor plan of classrooms, schools can better equip their students to learn in a more creative, collaborative and interactive environment.

As schools are remodeled, many of those changes may involve creating “learning suites,” instead of traditional four-wall classrooms. These suites involve room for group work and collaboration and often feature open walls, which may seem reminiscent of the “open classrooms” of the 1970s.

They’re very different, though, Pew said.

“We don’t sit in rows at desks with the teacher at the front of the classroom anymore,” Pew said. “Kids need to be participating in their learning, and teachers need to come together.”

This type of collaborative team-teaching is already happening with great success at Saluda Trail Middle School, Pew said.

In recent months, both Saluda Trail and Principal Brenda Campbell have been recognized statewide and nationally nationally for their modern and innovative teaching and leadership styles.

Schools that get new cafeterias might be perfect candidates for these large learning communities because of the available space in the old cafeterias, Pew said.

At Monday’s board meeting, members of the Pathfinders team demonstrated a type of furniture that can be used in these “new” classrooms. The tables transform into dividing walls and white boards, and they roll and stack easily, so a classroom becomes a continually adaptive space.

Funding

Now that the Pathfinders team has presented its proposal to the board, the next steps call for the school board to discuss the plan and then vote on it, Pew said.

On Monday, finance director Elaine Bilton told the board the district could borrow $100 million – nearly the full cost of the building plan – without raising taxes.

To complete the building plan by 2020, the district likely would need to seek voter approval in a bond referendum.

Chairman Jim Vining said the board would consider a bond referendum, but one would not be held before May.

This story was originally published January 17, 2015 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Rock Hill schools look to improve existing buildings."