By Ben Rodgers
Editor
SUAMICO – With two referendum questions looming on the April 6 ballot, some teachers in the Howard-Suamico School District have already taken a look at the possibilities.
At the Monday, March 15, school board meeting, a group of teachers from those two schools presented the board with what they gleaned from tours of modern facilities in Wisconsin.
“My house at Bay View does a lot of interdisciplinary things,” said Michele Zahn, an eighth-grade teacher. “My biggest thing right now is we don’t have a big space – obviously this year is an exception, we aren’t bringing 110 (students) together – but we don’t have a big space to do those things.”
Zahn took time after school Thursday, March 4, to visit the newly completed Sheboygan Falls Middle School. Other teachers made similar school visits.
“In our building where we don’t have a ton of natural light and it’s a little cavey in a ton of classrooms, even having that open concept was pretty cool to see,” Zahn said.
Bay View Principal Steven Meyers said the current middle school is not set up as a proper learning environment for students.
“You don’t know what you don’t know, and when you’re working in an environment, or your home, you see what you have and we’ve been working in a 1963 high school building trying to do middle school, which really has a unique set of philosophies and knowledge base, based on what students are like at that age,” Meyers said.
Meyers and Zahn were joined by co-worker Abby Porter, a seventh-grade teacher and fellow Bay View alummus with Zahn.
Porter said because of the current Bay View setup, certain types of classes are grouped together in the building, which isn’t conducive for the type of learning currently taking place.
“I get to teach science out of the old home ec room, and my students love to hear I had home ec in this classroom,” Porter said.
Projects to be completed at Bay View, pending successful passage of the referendum, include:
• New gym addition to free up space within the building to do other renovations.
• Convert 1963 gym to cafeteria and new kitchen.
• Relocate and expand the main office into portion of an oversized library/media center.
• Move the orchestra to the existing kitchen, near other music areas.
• Renovate classrooms – provide flexible connectivity, active lab spaces, small group spaces.
• Address capacity issues through renovated classrooms.
• HVAC improvements.
• Air conditioning.
• Ionization.
• ADA compliance items.
• LED lighting.
Also speaking before the board was Gena Renard, a second-grade teacher from Forest Glen.
Renard said she was one of the hires that was made possible with successful passage of the last referendum in 2018, which allowed the district to reduce class sizes by hiring more teachers.
She said she visited Notre Dame of De Pere, a new K-8 school, and Menasha High School, a 100-year-old building that received a major overhaul recently.
“I’m already proud to be here, but to envision and see where Forest Glen could go was pretty incredible,” Renard said.
She said she was impressed with open concepts, purposeful furnishings, natural light, quiet spaces and more.
“You have a sense of feeling invited, motivated, you feel professional, there was just a different energy when you enter a place like that,” Renard said of Notre Dame of De Pere. “You just feel really proud, and I’m not even a student, I just felt proud to be there.”
Forest Glen Principal Angie Sorenson said she was thankful for the opportunity to improve the learning environment for her students and staff.
“Thank you for the opportunity that we are presented with and hoping we get to continue with,” Sorenson said. “As you’re fully aware, Forest Glen needs help with our roof issue. I left the task force meeting where we decided we’d work on Bay View and Forest Glen and I paused, and took a moment to say ‘thank you.’”
Projects to be completed at Forest Glen, pending successful passage of the referendum, include:
• New gym addition to free up space within the building to do other renovations – sized for stand-alone community space.
• Convert gym to cafeteria, renovate kitchen.
• Add natural light to large group and library/media center spaces, transparent movable walls.
• Renovate lobby and former district office space.
• Replace boilers.
• Replace roof.
• Replace all windows.
• HVAC improvements.
• Ionization.
• ADA compliance items.
• LED lighting.
Jeff Eliers, board member, encouraged the teachers to strike while the time is right, regardless of the outcome April 6.
“Either way, we got to move forward,” Eilers said. “Now is the time. Go do the visits, enjoy the spontaneity, get out there, tell the story, see what people think. That’s what’s going to get them to the polls on April 6.”