About 75 persons, including many Boardman Local School educators, attended a two-day workshop last Thursday and Friday where they discussed concepts of so-called 21st Century learning under the banner of “educational visioning.” The forum was headed by Dr. Frank Locker, an educational planner, architect and Harvard professor. A third forum will be held Fri., June 26, where participants are expected to focus on facilities utilized by the local school district.
      “Our goal is to evaluate how education is being provided today, and look for ways to improve outcomes for our students,” Supt. Frank Lazzeri said.
      According to Locker, “Educational visioning is a process that brings together stakeholders, residents and educators to develop learning concepts, goals and values which result in a comprehensive, long-term planning tool for the school district.”
      Locker calls the visioning process as “the cornerstone of all educational planning that defines the nature of school and community relations for years to come.”
      In the June 11 and 12 forums are any indications, and considering Locker was paid $22,000 by the Boardman Local Schools to present the workshop sessions, school officials appear committed to making some attempt to rebuild their facilities, either through renovations or new construction, and in the face of declining enrollment and tax base (for example, the Boardman Plaza’s devaluation in recent years has resulted in a loss of more than $120,000 in property tax revenues).
      Any effort, at present, could carry a steep price tag.
      For example, school officials have said for at least a decade that Center Middle School is aging. A portion of the school was constructed a century ago, and the building lacks a modern heating and air conditioning system.
      According to a report of the Ohio School Facilities Commission, cost of constructing a new middle school would approach $30 million. State subsidies would fund about 17 per cent of such construction, leaving about $26 million to be funded from local funds, likely generated from a property tax issue.
      Attending the June 11-12 forums was architect Ray Jaminet, whose firm just completed construction of a new high school for the Beaver Local School District in Columbiana County. According to Jaminet, state standards require the installation of costly HVAC systems that must be designed to re-circulate the air in every classroom three times an hour.
      Although much of the June 11-12 forums centered on classroom teaching and concepts, there were some suggestions that Boardman Local School should reorganize their facilities. For example, place all kindergarten through second grade students in one building, place third through sixth grade students into a second building, and for seventh through 12th grade, tear down Glenwood Middle School and build an addition on the current high school to serve all middle school students.
      “We have to see what is palatable to the community,” Lazzeri noted this week.
      Locker opened the forum last Thursday, assessing current statistical data of the Boardman Local Schools, including declining enrollment (now at some 4300 students), an aging infrastructure and increasing numbers of special education and English-learning students.
      Locker guided the forum into discussion of “tomorrow’s potential,” that included a suggestion of consolidating elementary schools, and issues like classroom equity, socio-economic equity and program delivery equity.
      A variety of ‘learning modalities’ were discussed that included such concepts as project-based learning, teachers lecturing, and collaborative projects among students as well as teachers.
      According to Locker, “21st Century schools will be very different than when ‘we’ went to school...We are going to do some recalibration...and talk about the best methods of teaching.”
      Locker said ‘the big picture’ is the recognition the world is radically different than traditional schools.
      He compared current methods of teaching the curriculum to “a factory assembly line.”
      As such, Locker decried current methods of teaching kids, suggesting traditional schools and classrooms are outdated, to the point secondary school students need to work in small groups, building projects, not necessarily ‘taught’ by their teachers, rather guided through their education by teachers, often in some sort of ‘collaborative’ exercises.
      Lockert said that currently, across the country, 25 per cent of all high school classes are on-line and by 2019, at least 50 per cent of all such classes will be on-line.
      Such a statistic “disrupts” the traditional classroom setting, Lockert suggested, noting sometimes “the machine (the computer) is more personable that the person.”
      He added “We need to continue to teach core subjects, but we need to adapt them to the 21st Century.”
      He said that 21st Century skills include creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaborative skills, adding that project-based learning (where groups of students work together towards a common goal) is the poster child of 21st Century learning.”
      As such, Lockert called for an “integrated curriculum delivered by collaborative teachers in a relationship-based setting.”
      He expressed concern for the students who every year cause issues “and we can’t reach them.”
      His remarks drew a response from Boardman Local School Resource Officer, Sgt. Chuck Hillman, of the Boardman Police Department.
      “What I see, is those [problem] students have a lack of parental involvement,” Hillman said.
      A middle school teacher commented that in the learning process, “the family is huge, but sometimes parental involvement is hard to come by...The students want to learn, but the parents may not get them to school, or may not provide a good home environment.”
      One teacher at the forum said a parent actually fell asleep during a parent-teacher conference.
      Bart Smith, principal at Glenwood Middle School opined the local schools should proceed with ‘discovery learning’ where students get involved in community projects.
      As the forum opened last Friday for its second day, Locker suggested Boardman public schools need “fewer, but larger schools,” noting such an alignment might impact PTA units.
      “You might have to figure out a way to keep the network you have now, engaged in the schools in the future,” Locker said, adding that “We are grooming spokespeople for the process that will be carried forward.”
      Locker dished on the current layout of schools and classrooms, suggested 21st Century learning shouldn’t be provided in classrooms where students sit in long row of desks, listening to a teacher lecture.
      He displayed classrooms where students learn in a ‘lounge-type’ setting, where some kids just lay on the floor with heir books. Modern libraries also need to be redesigned, Locket suggested.
      He said that shifting to a K-2 school presents a number of challenges and “compromises may have to be made.”
      Much of the second day of the forum center on concepts such as ‘making things to learn’ and related classroom activities.
      When students have a project, like making something based on decisions made by small groups of students working together, students learn more and in the process build their self-esteem, Locker suggested.
      This is a good component of social-emotional learning,” he claimed.
      While project-based learning was largely highly touted, one teacher said the concept sounds great, “but if you did it everyday, it would become boring.”
      Robinwood Lane Principal Don Robinson opined the local school currently provide “project-based learning without any new facilities.”
      Longtime Market St. Elementary School teacher Julie Kaminista said the schools can provide project-based learning “with what we have, but it is not the best case scenario.”
      Several teachers at the forum said project-based and creative learning programs are currently hard to implement because of the time needed to prepare students for state-mandated testing programs.
      In brief remarks, local school board member John Landers noted that following the visioning programs “There will probably be multiple plans...but I don’t have all the answers.”
      Asked whether the local school system plans on “keeping the Center Middle School building,” Supt. Lazzeri responded, “No.”
      Noting $5 million in recent upgrades to Robinwood Lane and Stadium Dr. elementary Schools, the superintendent suggested the School Facilities Commission said the other two elementary schools, Market St. and West Blvd., “should go away.”
      “But, buildings don’t educate kids,” the superintendent said.