Everywhere you turn these days, it seems like another new high school is popping up...Minnechaug, Longmeadow, Putnam, West Springfield. I can not deny that I'm a little jealous. These new buildings are no doubt accommodating the needs of students and teachers to promote 21st century learning in very exciting, new ways. From the physical layouts to the technology integration of these new buildings, our building can not compare, however, it is nice to know that our town is looking to renovate where needed and feasible.
This year, our school district has secured a "building study" of ELHS. These facility experts will give us a very detailed examination of where we will need to focus on in terms of improvement. From electrical, technology and structural needs, our 50 year old school will need some help. Right now, we have been doing little things to bring some life and modern elements to our space. This summer, the bright blue poles outside were painted to match the building. We opened up and renovated some of our courtyards for our students to enjoy. We gave the main office a little facelift and painted some internal areas. We replaced the old gym windows and we renovated the boys' locker room. We also installed new security cameras.
As structurally sound as our building is, we can not ignore that some areas do need some expensive updates. Our library, for example, is extremely outdated. Our hope is to renovate this area to create more of a "media center" where students, teachers and community groups will be drawn to gather more frequently for studying, collaboration and professional development. Our auditorium is also an area that could use some TLC. Our hope is to update the sound system, lights and fading curtain as it is not only a hub for the high school, but for the community as well.
The biggest area of focus is the access to technology in our building. Our town's IT department as been closely working with our schools to help update our infrastructure to allow our students to access technology in ways that promote collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. We are thankful that they continue to work with us to find out ways to get technology into the hands of all our students. If I had one wish right now, it would be to have ELHS be a 1:1 iPad school...where every teacher and student had this device in hand. There is a great deal of research out there that supports the use of these devices to cut down on the cost of textbooks and paper, however, there is even more research out there to support how these devices can help students organize and learn more efficiently and effectively. Some schools have initiated "lease to own" programs to make the 1:1 program a reality.
At the end of the day, it is the people within the school that make the real difference and I could not be more proud of our teachers and students. I am very thankful to be work and live in a community that values education as much as East Longmeadow does.
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