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Room for expansion for academy
Published 9/10/2008 in News : Education
Editor's note: This is the fourth in a five-part series examining the individual facilities projects USD 457 would carry out upon successful passage of a $97.5 million bond issue on the Nov. 4 ballot. The final installment, about construction of a new Garden City High School, will appear on Saturday.
By EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
If Garden City USD 457 gets its new high school, students will leave behind not just the current GCHS building, but also the adjacent J.D. Adams Hall.
The vacated building would be partly used for the New Outlook Academy alternative high school, but beyond that, there are many possibilities for filling the space, Superintendent Rick Atha said.
"We will use the facility," he said. "It's just a matter of how it will be used."
Plans for a new 2,000-student high school are part of a $97.5 million bond issue the Board of Education is placing on the November ballot. Upon completion of the new school, Abe Hubert Middle School students and staff would move into the main GCHS building, Garfield Elementary School students and staff into the Abe Hubert building, and early childhood programs into an expanded Garfield Elementary building.
J.D. Adams Hall, the two-story, U-shaped building just south of the main GCHS, has capacity for about 500 students, Atha said.
An office sits across the hall from the building's main entrance, and in addition to regular classrooms, the building on its lower level includes the current high school's welding lab, plus some other career and technical education facilities.
Moving new programs into the facility probably wouldn't involve any major construction or renovation, and no funds have been built into the bond issue for changes at the facility, said architect Stuart Nelson, of the Garden City firm Gibson, Mancini, Carmichael & Nelson.
Expanding outlook
Though New Outlook Principal Brad Springston is uncertain about how much of J.D. Adams Hall his program would use, he knows it would give the program more space.
New Outlook Academy this year is serving about 80 students who, for one reason or another, haven't fit well in a traditional high school environment, Springston said. Some counselors refer the students because of discipline problems, some get behind in class because of illness or pregnancy, and some simply choose to attend, he said.
Currently, space constraints would limit New Outlook to about 100 students at its 1401 W. Jones Ave. location, though Springston said the student body is kept a little smaller because of limited staff.
With more room and more educators, however, he said he thinks New Outlook could have a greater reach.
"We probably have at least 200 students walking the halls of Garden City High School that could use an alternative setting," Springston said.
The flexibility of New Outlook's computerized courses assist students in catching up on missed credits, and a quarter system -- as opposed to GCHS's semester system -- lets them see quick progress, he said.
A smaller school with a heavy emphasis on relationships also is helpful to most who find New Outlook to be a good fit, Springston said.
Beyond providing more space for high-school-age students, a move to J.D. Adams Hall also would give New Outlook Academy room to expand its services to the middle-school, or even intermediate-school, level, which Atha said is part of long-term plans.
A committee led by Assistant Superintendent Shelly Kiblinger that researched the best educational settings for students recommended that USD 457 expand its alternative school at least down to seventh grade -- something Springston said he thinks is needed.
He's part of the district-wide Student Assistance Team, a group that helps students who continue to struggle, even with school-level interventions. He said the group works with the student and his parents and teachers to see what more can be done.
Until ninth grade, when the New Outlook Academy is available, he said the district currently doesn't have many alternatives except The Option, which serves students who have had discipline issues, or at the Therapeutic Education Program, for those with disabilities that prevent them from succeeding in the regular classroom.
Adding grade levels to New Outlook Academy would require the school to expand its personnel, though Atha said he expects the district would be able to staff the building by moving staff, rather than hiring more teachers.
Other options
The district also has discussed moving other programs, including the Bison Adult Alternative Diploma Program and the Therapeutic Education Program, into J.D. Adams, though no plans have been finalized.
A partnership between USD 457 and the Southwest Plains Regional Service Center, the Bison program, at 609 N. Eighth St., is for adults 18 and older who don't have a high school diploma, program Coordinator Tim McGlynn said. They work through mostly computerized courses to earn whatever credits they're missing, according to GCHS's graduation requirements, then earn a GCHS diploma, he said.
McGlynn said 130 to 150 students take classes at Bison on a part-time basis, attending anytime between 8:15 a.m. and 8 p.m., and between six and 12 have earned diplomas annually since the program began seven years ago.
He said he didn't expect a move to J.D. Adams would have much effect on the program, though being closer to the alternative high school could be an advantage because it would make it easier for the two to work together.
Moving the Therapeutic Education Program into J.D. Adams wouldn't change much either, except that it probably would give the program more space, Special Education Director Karen Johnson said.
The partnership between USD 457 and Area Mental Health Center is designed to provide full-day supervision and educational services for students who don't necessarily need to be hospitalized for mental health or behavioral issues, but still need closer supervision than what is available in a traditional school setting,
The current building, at 222 S. Main St., has capacity for 20 students, she said. Though only 18 attend now, there's potential for more students to need the services, she said.
"Now, there's not a lot of room to expand the program," Johnson said.
Additional possibilities include using the welding lab area of J.D. Adams Hall for the school district's maintenance department, or working out an agreement with Garden City Community College to share technical education facilities, Atha said.
Empty buildings
No particular plans have been made for any buildings that would be vacated by moving programs into J.D. Adams Hall, though Atha said he expects USD 457 would at least keep the current New Outlook building for storage.
The district lacks storage space anyway, and it's currently using the old Friend School, about 20 miles north of Garden City, to keep supplies, he said.
"Having storage here in town would be a benefit with high gas prices," he said.
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