Got nothing going on at 6:30p today? Well then you aren’t on the Decatur City Commission and you have no involvement in the pending Decatur High expansion.
The Decatur City Commission has a 6:30p work session this evening prior to it’s regular 7:30p meeting to review the neighborhood petitions received for/against annexation into the city and receive a general update on Annexation Master Plan “activities”.
At the same time just down North McDonough, City Schools of Decatur are meeting in the DHS cafeteria at 6:30p to discussion 4 options to expand the school. More details below.
CSD sent out the note below earlier today…
Please join us tonight, Monday, November 3 from 6:30-8:00 PM in the DHS Cafeteria to review preliminary master plan options for Decatur High School. The meeting will be facilitated by the school’s Architectural and Community Interaction Team.They will review several expansion options for the school and gather input into the Master Plan and Phase 1 improvements.Read more about the work accomplished to date on the Master Plan at Renfroe Middle and Decatur High Schools here.The Master Plan website includes videos of the community meetings, presentations and documents from the meetings, and comments and questions captured from staff, parents and Decatur citizens.Click here to download the presentation made to the Board of Education on Wednesday, October 29, 2014. There are four options presented: The Collegiate Courtyard, The Quad, The Collegiate Campus, and The Corner Campus.
So, did anybody attend the DHS expansion meeting? Thoughts about the options?
I went. Option 1 was most popular. plans are on the City website. The concern about Options 3 and 4, which are more like a college campus in design with more separate buildings, was the issue of security. In fact that was one of the most frequent comments in the entire meeting (along with a heavy influence of improving the band room situation). Sad to see more and more fear creep in.
IMO I’m not so sure that a central building design is necessarily safer than a college campus design. Got home and began looking around for studies or reviews on the safety of various campus plans but nothing found yet. If anyone knows of such information, please post.
Also, plans are to begin phase 1 in 2015 with phase 4 being done (if needed depending on annexation and population increases) in 2018 to accommodate the forecasted maximum of 2400 students by 2018!
Thanks!
I really like the campus designs the best. The corner campus puts the parking in the back where it belongs.
I went to a high school that had several buildings, and it can be a pain to change classes in inclement weather, but I liked having open spaces to have lunch and meet after school.
I agree with what you are questioning about “security”. Is having one main building more secure than many buildings? I can see the argument that they want to control access to the classroom buildings, and that would be hard to do with no main entrance. I guess they can implement pass cards for the out buildings, but I know my daughter would lose hers within a week. The plans don’t show a fence around the perimeter, but maybe that would alleviate some concerns?
When I lived in the Southwest, it seemed like most high schools were designed as campuses. How do they handle security? Maybe a secure fence around the property with limited access? Security fences can be designed to be attractive vs. prison-like, although the White House one doesn’t seem to be sufficiently protective. Can a school surrounded by a security fence be evacuated quickly and safely, e.g. in case of fire?
What exactly is the security worry supposed to be? Students making a break for it during the school day? (Does an open campus make that way easier? And that’s a disciplinary problem.) Muggers during the school day? (Seems unlikely.) Some random wacko with a high-powered weapon gunning down lots of students? Those incidents are obviously horrible to contemplate when they happen, but they’re still exceedingly rare, and I wouldn’t want protecting against freak spree killers to be a major design consideration.
I think it’s the unauthorized visitor thing. Students can sneak out of any building and do all the time, especially senior year. Unauthorized visitors include not just shooters, but also non-custodial parents, students from other high schools trying to cause trouble, expelled/suspended students, solicitors, irate parents without an appointment, college, military, religious and other recruiters without an appointments, random well-meaning family/community members who do not understand that their roaming the halls interrupts the sense of order and purpose the high school is trying to create, etc. Many high schools have metal detectors at entrances–thankfully, DHS hasn’t needed that. I’m really wondering how high schools with campus designs handle all this. I’ve never heard that they are less safe.
People didn’t articulate their specific security concerns at the meeting, though I too was curious what they meant. But I gather it was the dreaded shooter scenario as unlikely as the event may be. It’s a valid consideration but I’d hate to see that motivation drive the selection process. Luckily, some of those integral to the process to whom I spoke made me more at ease that such a fear would not drive the decision.