Sound attenuation: phase I

If you have spent any time inside our founding walls, you have surely noticed the lack of aforementioned walls and the resulting high noise levels.  Today we received the second set of drawings for the acoustical products soon-to-be installed in our kindergarten and first grade classrooms.   All classrooms will receive verticle baffles that hang from the ceiling and are anchored in the oak tops of the walls.  The kindergarten classrooms, because they have flat ceilings, will receive ceiling-mounted horizontal banners.  Some classrooms will also receive wall-mounted panels to absorb additional sound.  Teachers and administrators voted on the color options for the baffles and banners and Golterman & Sabo is completing our installation.  One of their representatives will do the final measuing Monday and we look forward to the installation being complete by the holidays.  We will continue to fundraise to complete phase two (cafeteria), phase three (expansion classrooms) and phase four (multipurpose room) with the goal of getting this work done in time for back-to-school in August 2010.

Our founding students have made amazing progress so far this fall and surpassed our expectations for their productive language skills– in this challenging environment.  We can’t wait to hear the difference in their learning and ability to focus. Aplausos!!!

The ink is dry

Yesterday afternoon I received the phone call that we’ve been waiting for.  The owner of 4011 Papin had finally signed the 10-year lease for our schools.  As stated in a previous post, we will add a link to the environmental report  from Environmental Operations, Inc. on our website.  The final addition to the lease was the clause addressing minor environmental remediation.  I slept better last night than I had slept in a year and woke up this morning energized, rejuvenated and full of ideas.  Thank you to everyone for your patience and faith.

We will move into (in to?) our administrative offices Friday, May 1st.  This space will also include a demonstration classroom for immersion demonstration lessons, School Project Group meetings and Employee Orientation.  Our instructional space is scheduled to be complete by July 1st for furniture delivery and set-up.

We will soon announce the open house and tour schedule of our new building and look forward to seeing you all there.  Although I still repeat “our school is not our building,” I am looking forward to introducing our building to our learning community.

Where are you located? Part IV

As soon as I arrive in the office tomorrow I will begin calling architechts and design/construction contractors about the best use of our building over the start-up years.  The central library adjacent building from Part III has been acquired by another group.  Two weeks ago Manny and I headed out for more walk throughs and found a very practical space in Forest Park SouthEast and quickly had other Board Directors tour it last week.  The plan is to lease this space and have the cosmetic build-out/updates done by the owner/developer.  We will need to meet with the architechts however to review our needs assessment, best use of the space over time and to identify ways in which the environment will enhance learning in our school community.  If all goes well we will sign a lease before the end of 2008!  Once the lease is signed I’ll post the building details.

See y’all at the School Project Group meeting Wednesday!

Where are you located?

Good question. All charter schools must be located within the City of St. Louis. The French and Spanish schools will share a building in their incubation years (this helps us reduce overhead costs). When surveying families over the past year, most families agreed that a centrally –located school would be best, not North or South, and not far Downtown. We engaged Duffe-Neurenberger Realty to identify buildings in the central corridor (between Delmar and 44). The facilities committee did two rounds of walk-throughs in July and August and we walked through a wide range of possibilities. We quickly realized that with our timeline to welcoming families (10 months!), we need a building that is in walk-in condition (no significant construction or structural updating). We have drafted a contract for one potential site near Jefferson and Market. As soon as our option is accepted, we’ll share the good word.

Our facilities search is far from over, however. As each school and the network grows we will start a new round of facilities walk-throughs and negotiations.