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Planning & Design Meetings Site Walk Meeting 4/15/2009 - MinutesPalo Alto HS SITE WALK MEETING No. 1 Palo Alto Unified School District 15 April 2009 P.1 PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMMING Palo Alto Unified School District SITE WALK MEETING NO. 1 DATE: 15 April 2009, 3:15pm-5:00pm SUBJECT: Site Walk Meeting with Palo Alto HS Facilities Steering Committee ATTENDEES: See attached sign-in sheet The following are the highlights of the meeting: A. As an introduction, Principal Jacqueline McEvoy announced that the purpose of this meeting is the give architect Erwin Lee a sense of what elements are important to the individual departments. B. Trinity Klein, IS of the English Department gave a tour of the department facilities. The highlights from the walk-through were: 1. The department is fine with the offices staying where they are, which is close to the 200 building. 2. Having individual offices in lieu of cubicles, with full-height walls and closing doors, is preferred for private, student sessions. 3. There is flexibility in the office to teacher ratio. One teacher per office is nice, but not necessary and the department has the ability to share office space. 4. The existing common space is a 24’x16’ room with sink that is used as a lunch room and for socializing. This space is adequate, but the ERC is used as a meeting space as well. Ideally there would be one, large space for all meetings. These conference spaces are currently not shared with any other department. 5. The existing IS office is 14’x16’, and is too large for its purpose. 6. More book space is needed in the bookroom. Books that are circulated two or three times a year, as well as computer carts are stored here. The hot water heater is in the ceiling, and is prone to destroying books if it leaks again. In addition to the bookroom, there need to be book shelves in common areas for resource books. 7. There should be a phone in the conference room for private conversation. 8. A centrally-located, easily accessible supply room is needed 9. The lockers need to stay. 10. The “English” computer lab is used by the Journalism department for four periods a day. Other classes use it as well. It needs to be very accessible and in close proximity to the department classrooms. Optimally, the existing computer lab would stay, and an additional computer lab would be built. C. Radu Toma, IS of the Math Department gave a tour of the department facilities. The highlights from the walk-through were: Palo Alto HS SITE WALK MEETING No. 1 Palo Alto Unified School District 15 April 2009 P.2 1. The restrooms should have at least one shower for the teachers that exercise during the day. This shower could possibly go into the gym addition. 2. There are 10 perimeter offices that are shared by 16 staff members, one office that houses four, and another that houses three staff members. The size of these offices is adequate. Optimally, 2/3rds of the offices would be individual, and 1/3rd would be shared. 3. There is no decent-sized conference space; a small conference space is needed. 4. There is a common space/lounge that is for the students which is an important space for the math culture on campus. There is also an adequately-sized kitchen/gathering area for the staff. 5. A lockable workroom is needed to house computers, printers and the fax machine. 6. Most of the classrooms have white-erase boards on three walls. Up to 10 students use the boards at one time during instruction. If sliding marker-boards are utilized, there is a possibility of only furnishing two walls with marker-boards. 7. The bookroom is very small compared to that of the English department but may be an adequate size if efficient shelving was installed. Most unused books are stored in base cabinets in the individual classrooms. If the bookroom could accommodate these books, there would be no need for base cabinets in the classrooms. 8. The classrooms have evolved to vary in size, and generally lack a sufficient amount of daylight. More day-lit space is desired, but not if it sacrifices wall space for marker-boards. Teachers are inconvenienced by having to walk through other classrooms to get to their own from the lounge/kitchen area. 9. If a teacher teaches five out of seven periods, they need their own classroom. All other teachers travel to various classrooms for instruction. D. Eric Bloom, IS of the Social Studies Department gave a tour of the department facilities. The highlights from the walk-through were: 1. Locked storage is needed for maps and shared videos, test forms, computer carts, A/V equipment, etc. There is a locked storage room that is currently adequate for their equipment, which also houses the IT servers. However, teachers need a place to lock their personal effects. Because teachers use their offices primarily as locked storage rooms, the number of offices required could be reduced if there was a locked storage room for staff personal items. 2. Currently, five teachers have their own classroom, but the average teacher teaches in two rooms. Ideally, the teacher’s office space would be integrated within the classroom itself. 3. There is a space that is commonly shared that can be accessed directly by all classrooms. This is an important element. 4. In the library building, the Social Studies offices are split with the World Language department. There is a lounge room that never gets used. Most of the offices are rarely occupied, and are shared multiple teachers. Not every office has electric plugs; they are in the design of early-day cubicles. 5. The SS Aide’s office, which is adjacent to the SSRC is used for parent/teacher conferences. 6. 2/3rds of the teachers prefer chalkboards. 7. The IS office is too large for its purpose. E. Kara Rosenberg explained the needs of the Adult School, and gave comments. The following are highlights from these comments: Palo Alto HS SITE WALK MEETING No. 1 Palo Alto Unified School District 15 April 2009 P.3 1. Instruction takes place four nights a week. Approximately 20 classrooms are utilized per night. The class subjects include English, ESL, Foreign Language and others. 2. Sliding marker-boards are desired because day teachers want to leave writing on the board for next –day instruction, but night school teachers need space for writing as well. This way the day teachers’ writing is protected. 3. There needs to be a designated, flexible locked storage space for night classes to lock up equipment such as Pharmacy-Tech materials, as well as a cabinet in the classroom. 4. The department prefers rooms with tables as opposed to individual desks. 5. Way-finding on campus at night is very difficult due to limited lighting conditions. F. Lee discussed upcoming scheduling coordination, and the various phases of project development that will be taking place: • Pre-Design / Architectural Planning • Schematic Design • Design Development • Construction Documents • Bidding • Construction Administration • Project Close-out G. The tentative scheduled meetings for the upcoming development phases will be monthly at 3:15pm, Wednesdays, and are to be announced. END Prepared by Dean Schmitz of Deems Lewis McKinley. Please advise if you feel that any of the above items are inaccurate or need further clarification or detail. cc: Attendees File