NEWSLETTER
Several years ago, the public schools of Oklahoma City closed more than a dozen school buildings.
It was part of a Realineration process In the district to the populations of students of correct size within the schools, some were overcrowded, others were insufficient, and to make the school experience better and more consistent for students in the entire city.
But what to do with all those empty buildings?
It is a question that dozens of district leaders throughout the country. As Registration has decreased In some public schools, due to the greater absorption of alternative education environments, such as virtual schools, home education and private schools from pandemic; lower birth rates; and population changes that have left some school districts with much less children who attended years ago: several districts have made the decision to consolidate student populations and close school buildings.
So what?
“When buildings feel vacancies, they can be insecure spaces, and we didn't want that to happen,” says Stephanie Hinton, executive director of Early Childhood in the public schools of Oklahoma City.
An idea that has taken over many districts: reuse these empty school buildings in early care and care centers.
It is a natural adjustment, says Aaron Loewenberg, a senior policy analyst of the Educational Policies Program in New America, a group of experts.
These buildings are often spacious and are located in a center within a community, with large parking lots and already areas for educational purposes, says Loewenberg. They are also typically old primary schools, which means that some aspects of the original classroom design and buildings design can accommodate younger students.
“From the perspective of the school district, I would prefer to obtain some income in the rent than only … have a decomposition asset,” says Loewenberg.
Meanwhile, the field of care and early education has a serious supply shortage. Most areas of the country have Very few points To serve all children from birth to the 5 years they need them. Has left tens of thousands of families with interrupted work schedules and children without access to high quality early learning experiences.
“It can be a mutual benefit if done well,” says Loewenberg.
From one community service to another
Education leaders in Oklahoma City also thought about it. Several of the schools that the district closed in 2019 since then has become places for early learning programs.
An old school, Gatewood Elementary, became the early Gatewood learning center in 2021, with eight classrooms that serve babies, young and preschool children.
Gatewood prioritizes the children of the district staff for their places, an important benefit for employees that Hinton had long requested that the district began to offer, as a way of staying competitive with the surrounding school districts.
“It is really difficult to find affordable child care,” she says, “and if she is in a teacher contract, you may not need or want it in the summer.”
Other former primary school In the district, called Pierce, he was leased to Sunbeam Family Services, a long -lasting non -profit organization in the area that provides education in early childhood and enveloping support services for families.
Sunbeam renewed the space and built 14 early childhood classrooms, creating all the new spaces for child care in a part of the city that needed much more access to high quality early education programming, shares Hinton. (Sunbeam then leased and renewed a Second Vacant Primary School in the district, creating 12 new classrooms of early childhood).
It is not a small amount of work to convert these primary schools into early learning spaces appropriate for development, according to those who have done so. But it is worth it.
Primary schools are buildings financed by taxpayers built and operated at the service of the community, says Hinton. Many leaders of the school district want buildings to have a second life that also benefits the community.
In addition, the space is different from anyone who would find for an early learning classroom elsewhere, says Paula Gates, director of Sunbeam programs.
“These classrooms are massive, because they are built for 25 second -degree students,” she says. “We are obtaining this square feet to create really beautiful class environments for 12 small or 18 year old children.”
“The additional space for us is not a load, it is a benefit,” adds his colleague Andrew Norton, senior director of IT and facilities in Sunbeam.
The cost of leasing and renewing a vacant school building is high: Sunbeam invested $ 2.2 million in Pierce's location, but it is a better treatment than if they had built a new building.
“It would have cost us more exponentially for us to do that, even before you (take into account) the costs of the earth,” says Norton.
Under construction
Not all K-12 school buildings converted accumulate price labels in millions, but the cost is undoubtedly a key challenge, says Todd Hays, senior vice president of Lakeshore Learning Materials, which has helped provide a series of primary schools reused for early learning.
The updates in Gatewood, the location of Oklahoma City that serve the children of the district staff, cost around $ 150,000, says Hinton.
Hays, the average cost of equipping only a high quality early learning classroom is approximately $ 25,000.
Buildings may have a variety of needs: some old school buildings may need all new HVAC systems or modern plumbing, for example, but renovations tend to share some features.
The main change necessary is for bathrooms.
It is standard that early learning classrooms have a private bath within them. Young children in young and preschool children tend to experience training to go to the bathroom, and are not enough to get out of the room, the hall and in a public bathroom with stalls.
Children's classrooms can pass without bathrooms, since these children are still in diapers, but other rooms require the addition of bathroom and sink. (Some old kindergarten classrooms may have been equipped with a bathroom in the room, but even in these cases, bathrooms can be lowered).
Another important feature, according to Emily McGowan, director of Product Services of Lakeshore Learning, is access to the recreation courtyard, especially because outdoor time is a regular component of most early learning programs.
“You want to be attentive about how students place in buildings so that he is not taking 20 years from the farthest classroom to the main door,” he adds.
In the Unified School District of Tucson in Arizona, which converted two empty primary buildings into Early learning centers In 2014, the play team had to be replaced to be appropriate for the ages and stages of development of younger children, says Rep Kievit, senior director of community schools and preschool programs for the district.
The same is true for classroom furniture. Incorporated cubicles must be appropriate for height for younger children. Individual desks can be exchanged for communal tables.
'A beautiful and wonderful thing'
Another challenge of converting K-12 spaces into early childhood is to find enough personnel to fill the classrooms.
Educators have long been a Scarce resource In the field of early care and education, and a new space does not automatically change that.
“We have crazy waiting lists for 5 year old babies and children. We can simply not find enough personnel, ”says Kievit in Tucson. “The staff is a barrier (because) are not certified teachers who receive a certified salary of $ 60,000 a year.”
However, many of the school districts that operate early childhood programs, including Gatewood in Oklahoma City and the two programs in Tucson Unified, directly use early childhood educators. Although their salaries are not on par with primary school teachers, they are more competitive than private programs in their areas, say Hinton and Kievit.
And early childhood educators have access to the benefits of the district, which is a great attraction. In Tucson, this includes advantages such as paid free time, illness license and health insurance, all oddities in private programs.
“Because we are a school district, we have some pieces that help us recruit,” adds Hinton.
Despite some challenges, these early childhood programs are Boons in their communities.
“We receive calls and emails regularly from teachers from all over the district that obtain our students, who promote pre-K to the kindergarten,” says Kievit. “They are amazed at how well prepared these children are.”
“It's somewhat beautiful and wonderful,” he adds. “Families are always happy.”
Loewenberg, from New America, sees these programs as opportunities for school districts to “capture” families early and make them feel part of the school community.
In Tucson, around 80 percent to 90 percent of families attending one of the two early childhood centers administered by the district end up choosing Unified Tucson for the kindergarten of their children, says Kievit. For her, that means that the early learning program “plays an important role in recruitment and retention” of students and families in the district.
With some early successes, and more school closures likely In the future: Loewenberg and others believe that we will continue to see more of these types of conversions.
“It won't disappear,” he says. “This is something we will talk about much more.”
