(Avoca) AHSTW School District is collecting feedback from community members regarding the needs for the school facilities.
Superintendent Darin Jones said about a year ago AHSTW Schools and the School Board engaged with a company called SitelogIQ to help them identify the condition of the their facilities from infrastructure to learning environment and all of those pieces in between. Jones said SitelogIQ finished their observations and shared that information with the board and the next step was to engage the community and share as much information as they could in regards to the condition of the facilities. Last week they held a series of community meetings.
“It was a way to share past work, to talk about future steps or potential next steps, and then also listen to the ideas and thoughts of our community,” explained Jones. “The meetings, they were able to provide very good information for us and it was great to hear and interesting to hear the comments of our community in regards to our building.”
Jones said they continue to engage their communities and collect information. He said there is currently a community survey available on the school website and paper copies will be available at the school. Community members can contact Superintendent Darin Jones to obtain a paper copy. Jones said they will take all of that information, analyze it and identify what their next steps are.
“We understand this is a different time and we want to make sure that we communicate all information effectively with our community members and in doing so create opportunities for people to see the school. This is a time when those things might not be easily accessible but we certainly want to find ways to share information and show people and community members what we’re actually talking about and looking to address,” stated Jones.
Jones said one of their facility needs is space.
“We have some areas of the building where we have some of our exploratory classrooms meeting in the regular core curriculum classroom. For example, we have art on a cart right now. Our art teacher does a wonderful job with that but she moves from room to room each day, she doesn’t have a designated art space,” explained Jones. “So, we’re really looking to find ways to create space and then also look to see are there areas that we can renovate and improve.”
Jones said that includes facility systems as far as their current air conditioning and heating units and just general updates to the building. He also said in creating space, that could mean additions to their building and that’s what they are really looking to monitor to see where they need to go from here.
