Modulars Not An Option For Taylor
The District has determined that Taylor Elementary School will not be open during the 2008-09 school year. The school, located at 720 7th Avenue SW, suffered serious damage in June when three feet of flood water rose on the first floor. Taylor students and staff members are being relocated for the school year to other District schools.
“While we know that students are resilient, after the devastation of the flood, we need to constantly reassure them and let them know they will be alright,” explained Dr Dave Markward, Superintendent. “With all due respect to where the students are located, letting them know that we believe in them will be the biggest factor in their successful recovery.”
The District considered the use of modular buildings for Taylor School but rejected the option for several reasons, according to Dr. Dave Markward, Superintendent. The decision against using modular buildings was based on the following reasons:
- The District has capacity in its other 23 elementary schools to enroll Taylor students.
- Educating students in a fully staffed, fully equipped school is better than modular classrooms.
- At present, the Taylor students are spread throughout the community. It would be impractical to bring students great distances to and from school.
- Some families may not want to return when they are closer to other schools.
- Meeting the needs of special needs children would be very difficult in modulars.
- Modular classrooms are not conducive to a cohesive school community. The classes in each building are separated from groups in other buildings.
- Overall, modular classrooms do not provide the overall quality of service delivery for kids that traditional buildings are designed to do.
- Students would have to leave the modular and go outside in all kinds of weather to access computer labs, media centers, physical education areas, and other special services/enrichments.
- Preparing and serving meals would be a challenge.
- Securing additional, separate, stand alone classrooms for safety purposes and severe weather would be very difficult.
- Communication challenges (i.e., morning announcements; emergency announcements).
- Placement of modular classrooms at Taylor would put children and staff in buildings still not protected from recurring flooding.
- Other school districts in crisis do not have the options we have and should have access to available FEMA modular structures.
“The use of modular classrooms in some situations has worked,” Markward added. “We are using one or two of them in some of our buildings for some specific program needs. While not ideal, this is markedly different from using them in large numbers to compose a school. Other school districts have used them when they have had a significant percentage of their buildings impacted. We have 23 other intact buildings to shoulder the load.”