A SCHOOL CLOSURE ALTERNATIVE
INVOLVING ECOLOGICALLY SOUND, AFFORDABLE HOUSING
AND DESIGNATED COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
BY BRIAN STAPLES
DRAFT 1- 2007/02/05, DRAFT 2-2007/02/06, Draft 3- 2007/02/0, Draft 4- 20070210
Summary for Convenience. This paper contends that urban sprawl creates a vicious circle where inner cities decline, vital agricultural area are lost forever and the use of hydrocarbons fuels grows ever faster. The threat of global warming is raised. Based on two quotes from H. G. Wells about education and bicycles, hope for the future is possible if we become better learners. The idea of community education and of Designated Community Schools as a vehicle for the creation of learning societies is explained. The history of community schools in Alberta is reviewed. A proposal is made that communities facing school closures can build on an idea from the Mayor of Edmonton, Stephen Mandel. The creation of high density residential towers which contain community learning and participation centres on the sites of closed schools is presented. These buildings are to be highly ecologically sound and with mixed occupancy. A participatory process for community design of these facilities is advised. Steps for advancing these kinds of projects are set out.
The Purpose of This Paper. This paper was written to give community members facing neighbourhood school closure an ecologically sound and democratic process for keeping a school in their area.
A Vicious Circle.
It is well known that our planet has experienced an explosive growth of population in the last one hundred years. In the last two hundred years, with the advent of the industrial age and its concomitant use of hydrocarbon fuels, we have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by over thirty five percent. Carbon dioxide is the regulator of global climate. This has caused a rate of increase in carbon dioxide not seen for five hundred thousand years. Global warming threatens life as we know it on our planet.
Many cities in North America are characterized by rapid growth in concentric circles around the city core. As this growth continues it often impinges on highly valuable and irreplaceable areas used for agriculture. As these cities sprawl outward, they accentuate the use of hydrocarbon fuels for transportation and the heating and cooling of low density residential areas. As relatively low density growth continues, inner rings of the cities experience a decline of population as families with children move to the outskirts.
Whenever civic governments attempt to increase population density for ecological or other reasons, residents resist these initiatives. Further, as schools close in the inner
2
rings, property values begin to decline. Families with children who hear rumours of
a school closure immediately look for other schools for their young people and also often give consideration to moving even though they do not want to do that. This creates a vicious circle where inner cities decline, vital agricultural areas are lost forever and the use of hydrocarbon fuels grows ever faster.
The Race of History.
Two quotes from the British writer and thinker, H. G. Wells, are appropriate to the above cited observations. The first is, “History is in a race between education and catastrophe.” And, the second is, “Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”
If our species is to succeed in surviving global warming, the population explosion and other threats like nuclear devastation, the growing worldwide gap between the rich and the poor, religious extremism, and the ascendancy of authoritarian governments to cope with the interesting times in which we live, we simply must become better learners.
The greatest of all these threats is global warming. If we do not rectify the causes of global warming, all other considerations pale into insignificance. Living green is primary and paramount in our struggle to find solutions to the world’s great problems. For us all to live green will require the greatest international cooperative initiative that has been mounted by human kind. Mr. Wells was a true visionary in his thoughts about adults and bicycles.
On Community Education.
The western world tends to see education as a vehicle for individual betterment. It also sees it as the means to become more competitive in the global market place. We need to become more American than the Americans, more Japanese than the Japanese, more German than the Germans, and now, more Chinese than the Chinese so we can out compete them economically. The trouble is that the planet cannot take the ecological side effects of all this competition.
There is another way to view the educational process without denigrating the importance of the individual. That way is to also see the importance of people in communities learning with, through and for each other. This educational construct is known as community education. Community education is defined by the Canadian Association for Community Education as a process in which people within communities utilize educational, democratic and sound research methods for both individual and community betterment. People in communities tackling issues through community education learn about and research an issue thoroughly before deciding on a course of action. “First we learn and then we act,” is their motto. This process fosters the development of learning societies. There is no doubt that a true learning society will be very creative and
3
technologically inventive. But, it will also promote thoughtfulness about wider issues
including the interrelatedness of all life forms on the planet, among other things.
Widespread use of community education and the development of learning societies are necessary conditions for success in dealing with the great issues of our time.
On Community Schools.
As implied above, our schools tend to be seen as vehicles largely focused on economic competition. Typically, they are financed to be open twenty percent of waking hours, and to focus on twenty percent of the population, i.e., children and young people. These schools may be referred to as 20/20 Schools. And, they rely on top down, state ordered testing to ensure teachers reach very selective educational objectives which foster economic competitiveness.
A very important vehicle for implementing community education is through our schools. Truly democratic societies value all forms of learning, and this can include a different kind of school. It is possible to have schools, largely within the current givens for 20/20 schools, that become, by design, community learning and participation centres or Designated Community Schools. These kind of neighbourhood schools, regardless of grade levels, are open all waking hours, and reach out to all people in the community. They strive to become 100/100 schools. And, this is done, not in spite of children and young people, but because of them. It is to show our children that learning is an essential part of life throughout our lives. The purpose of community schools is to help people with need, regardless of age, to the learn the basics of living their lives as thoughtfully, constructively, fully and happily as possible. Designated Community Schools increase the number of people they serve and the time of that service each by four hundred percent and they cost only about five percent more per annum than the typical neighbourhood school. That is a pretty good return on investment. The characteristics of community education as a process, and Designated Community Schools are found in Appendix A.
A History of Community Schools in Alberta.
The original community schools in Alberta were the little white school houses that dotted the province around 1900. There were four thousand of them at that time. They were, by necessity, real community learning and participation centres. By 1970, Alberta was spending more per capita on our schools than any other province in Canada. But, we had the lowest rate of community based learning by adults in Canada. About one adult in ten was engaged in some kind of planned learning experience each year. We were tied at the bottom with Newfoundland. In that year the provincial government began strategies to change that learning rate. It was decided to try to reach the learning rate of Sweden at one in four or twenty five percent of Alberta adults in planned learning each year.
Two initiatives were developed to reach the one in four goal. The first, implemented in
4
1975, was Local Further Education Councils. There were 82 such councils blanketing
the province by 1984. These were interagency councils involving all kinds of learning institutions from universities to agricultural societies. The second initiative was the Alberta Community School Programme begun in 1980. By 1986, there were sixty-six Designated Community Schools scattered across the province from inner city Calgary to Menno Simmons Community School near the boarder with BC in the Peace country. In the catchment areas of the Designated Community Schools there was developed ten times the amount of community based learning than prior to their designation despite the fact that a further education council had previously been established in the region.
In 1984, Statistics Canada did the first country wide survey of adult learning in Canada. Alberta reached its one in four learning goal and was declared “Canada’s Learning Province,” by the Canadian Association for Adult Education. Unfortunately, Sweden in the meantime had reached a rate of one in two adult learners in a given year.
In 1992, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development identified seven “Learning Cities” in the world. These were Gothenburg, Vienna, Bologna, Pittsburgh, Adelaide, Kakagawa, and…Edmonton. Unfortunately, the Alberta Community School Programme was a casualty of Alberta budget cuts in 1993 and was eliminated. The Further Education Council Programme survived but endured sever financial cutbacks and is a pale shadow of its former status. The learning rate of Albert adults has also fallen back by about twenty percent and is now below the national average.
School Closures and Stephen Mandel.
First, it is important to remember as a citizen in an area that is threatened with school closure in Edmonton due to urban sprawl that this phenomena is not unique to Edmonton and also occurs in other cities in Alberta, Canada and in the United States.
Secondly, in Edmonton, the mayor, Stephen Mandel, has mused in public about the idea of putting affordable housing on designated school sites that will not likely be used under current planning provisions. That sounds like a good idea. But the idea has real import for community members where there is a distinct possibility the local school will be closed. In fact, it has import for all such communities in Edmonton and in the province where such disturbing initiatives are being planned.
We need to build on Mayor Stephen Mandel’s idea about the use of school sites, but we need to apply them to sites where schools have been closed or will be closed in future.
It is interesting how the soundness of an idea can be tested by how elegant the idea is. Elegant ideas stand up against a variety of criticisms, and they are not one dimensional. Instead, they provide solutions to a number of problems at once. They are also often valid in unforeseen ways.
5
What is proposed here is that school communities learn and research the idea of the
building of a high density residential tower, or towers, on school sites where schools are scheduled for closure. These new buildings would have a lesser footprint than their current school. Conditions would apply. The building would be designed for a mixed occupancy including a meaningful number of units of affordable housing for families with children. However there would be provisions for a significant number of other units built for working professionals, singles, seniors and so on.
Within the building would be a school that would be a community learning and participation centre for benefit of all the community (i.e., a Designated Community School as as referred to above). This would be feasible because the new building would be designed to attract a significant number of families with children to add to children already in the community. The school and related public facilities would be built by a developer as part of the high density housing unit in lieu of having to buy land, and the public part of the building would be owned by the school board and city. It could include a fitness area for the community, meeting rooms, offices for other agency people and so on. There might even be retail space in it as a part of the public facility and rented to community business people. Income generated could be used to offset operational costs of the community owned facility. Various kinds of rental/ownership options for the high density residential aspect are possible from condo to rental to a cooperative configuration, etc.. The new complexes should be models of ecological soundness.
In the event that the existing school could be economically renovated to be ecologically sound, the high density tower could be connected. The developer would pay for the renovations, again, in lieu of having to purchase land. The school would remain in public hands.
This building should be planned through the use of community and educational specifications developed by the community. We need to think large. As a model of an ecologically sound building, it might, for example, have its own wind turbine or turbines built in with the capacity to store energy produced as compressed air. The French have invented an urban auto that runs on compressed air! (See.) Heating could be provided by heat pumps. Safe parking and public transit provisions must dealt with. Of course, there should be should be places for bicycle storage (shades of H. G. Wells.) One could go on and on. The point is that carefully planned provisions from teachers, students, parents, other agency people and the community, achieved through generating the specifications document just cited, can be integrated into plans for a building before construction. Such planned provisions are far cheaper that if they are retrofitted. Not all ideas for the building will be feasible even if they are desirable. However, form should follow function. Design is everything. Appendix B. includes a number of such design specification ideas.
6
Steps Ahead.
If this idea is seen as both desirable and feasible by community leaders where a school
closure is planned, a few beginning steps are suggested.
1. Approach Mayor Mandel to see if he supports this idea and believes that City Council may be supportive. Include in discussions the possibility of City financial support for ecological innovations, park upgrades to the school grounds and facilities which are under the city government jurisdiction like a police or social service office, for example.
2. Call together leaders from other communities that have had schools closed or where closure is possible to see if they are supportive of the concept. If a number of communities seem supportive, this will generate an economy of scale for several of these high density residential designated community school projects. Those that communities are supportive should approach the school board to see if it might show
interest. If the board is supportive, ask for a two year moratorium on pending school closures so communities can do the learning and research needed to advance this concept. Even if the board is not supportive, it is still an option to for the community to proceed with the educational and research option set out herein.
3. Determine if there is support for this concept in places like Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Fort McMurray, etc.. Use telephone and email to communicate.
4. Collectively approach the new Premier to see if is he is supportive.
There are implications for recreating the Alberta Community School Programme, and for support of the essential ecological aspects of each project. You might also want to talk to him about how dysfunctional to communities is his law that school closures must be dealt with in a single school year.
5. Make the process of advancing the concept as satisfying as possible to all those involved. Bring chocolates to all meetings! Learn to make meetings matter.
Conclusion.
Whatever approach a community follows in efforts to save their school will take time and community support. The community education process involved with this alternative is no exception. No doubt many compromises will be needed. It is very difficult for each of us as individuals to break out of our own contexts, and that certainly applies to communities, whatever their size. The Chinese use the same graphic character for crisis and opportunity. School closures create a crisis and signal a decline of a community as people move to the outskirts where arable land is put in jeopardy. The use of hydrocarbons grows because of urban sprawl. We have an opportunity to begin a process that offers hope for the future on many fronts. It all depends on whether you believe that history is in a race between education and catastrophe. Someone else has said that the best way to predict the future is to create the future you want.
Brian Staples, 9603 96 Street, Edmonton, T6C3Z1, brianstaples@shaw.ca, p/f 780 4668042/4668047
Appendix B
SOME IDEAS FOR THE DESIGN OF HIGH DENSITY RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS WHICH CONTAIN A DESIGNATED COMMUNITY SCHOOL AND OTHER PUBLIC FACILITIES
(It is important to think big and drop unfeasible or undesirable ideas later if need be.)
1.All balconies should have waist high solar panel facings to generate electricity for the building, the grid and to store energy as compressed air for use in compressed air vehicles. The opaque panels should not obstruct the view but will hide from view things from below like bicycles which might be stored there. Also have awnings on all balconies projecting from the balcony floor above. The awnings should also have solar panels on them.
2.Have a community/building green house on the roof of the building for growing food stuffs like tomatoes, cumbers, peppers and decorative plants. Design this as a visiting and reading refuge.
3.Using existing technology, install a vertical axis, egg beater, gearless wind turbine for electrical generation. This could be located on a pedestal in the centre of the roof of the building, projecting through the green house roof. A vertical axis machine is self regulating in all winds, and is much lighter than the standard three bladed turbine. If this is not practical, revert to placing much smaller turbines around the periphery of the roof of the building.
4.Install a sloping overhang on the roof of the building to minimize the possibility of leaking from rain penetrating the building’s water and vapour barriers. Put solar panels on this overhang. Also have eaves on it and all balcony awnings for collecting rain water. Build in the capacity to store this rain water with outlets in to each housing unit and all public facilities for use in all toilets and for other uses like watering plants, washing vehicles, etc.
5.Build in to the facility accessible channels to all units and public facilities for electricity, cable, compressed air and other conduits, the nature of which are unforeseen.
6.Ensure that the building can accommodate wireless connections to computers and for other uses.
7.Investigate the use of compressed air for generating electricity from wind and solar panel electrical generation capacities. This will mean the building can be nearly self sufficient in terms of energy needs. Insure that this air compressing unit will be house in a sound proofed chamber, probably in the building basement. Use straw bales for the sound proofing. Compressed air holds great potential as a green energy source for urban automobiles.
8.Install heating from closed circuit heat pumps using well holes drilled on site for heating and cooling.
9.Design living units with casement, triple glazed windows which are placed to enhance air flow to reduce the need for air conditioning to a minimum.
10.Create a community fitness centre with steam room and hot tub capability.
11.Establish an off site storage location for recreational trailers and other large recreational items. If more than one of these high density residential tower/community schools is built, this storage site can be shared. It should also be made available to the community.
12.Site the facility so its shadow impinges on as few other homes as possible.
13.Landscape and plant trees around the periphery of the grounds with shaded sitting sites and with outdoor fitness stations. A walking/cross country skiing trail should run through this treed peripheral area. Have some parking and cycle stands nearby for community use of this area.
14.Make good provisions for people moving households in and out. For example, have a loading and unloading dock to accommodate two moving vans, and have a freight elevator that can also move cycles and cycle trailer carts with ease. Make sure there is easy access to this elevator for people on cycles with child trailers and people who want to use adult tricycles.
15.Ensure that excellent provisions are made for access for disabled and elderly people.
16.Avoid use of carpet and other allergy unfriendly furnishings.
17.Have all public washrooms with centre drains, impermeable floors and taps where hoses can be attached for ease of cleaning.
18.Provide for an ample unheated or low heat storage area where moveable and lockable storage carts for use by community group such as Cubs, Brownies, classes etc., can be stored. These carts can then be easily rolled to whatever space such groups use in the Community School and stored in the unheated site after.
19.Provide for as much natural but screenable light as possible in large educational/community use spaces such as the gymnasium, classrooms and library.
20.Build in space for cleaning equipment carts for use by community and school groups once their activities are completed in the various rooms of the public facility.
21.Make all living units designed to save as much space as possible but also be very liveable a la the Japanese mode. Use of Murphy beds is an example.
22.Create balconies as large as possible to facilitate outdoor living.
23.Site play areas for young children within sight of kitchen windows and balconies of units designed for families with children.
24.Design highly convenient recycling and garbage disposal facilities.
25.Design the Designated Community School around a core and provide for modular expansion of classrooms if future demand so dictates.
26.Put in a state of the art meeting room for up to thirty people designed to facilitate shared decision making in the operation of the school and the facility. Such a room will also prove to be in great demand by community members.
28.Ensure steps are taken to reduce sound transmission between units in the complex.
29.Emphasize community service, work experience, student/senior pairing, mass participation sports, arts and fitness activities, extensive participation by students in democratic school governance and the development of very strong sense of community in the student body and with the geographic community. This will minimize vandalism, bullying and involvement in gangs and cliques among the student body. This should go without saying in a Designated Community School.
30.Design the building using a much recyclable materials as possible. Also plan ahead so it can be dismantled with a view to be able to salvage as much of the building materials as possible.
31.Build lifelong sports venues like tennis courts, volley ball and basketball courts, and outdoor chess and checkers boards on the school grounds to encourage intergeneration contact.
32.Playing fields should be designed for massive participation with, for examples, smaller cross field areas for games like soccer, continental hand ball, touch football, field hockey etc.. This will mean more players are actually exposed to the ball used in such games! It will also mean that school grounds can be used for other things like community gardens.
32.Provide for ease of access to a school and community bus for getting students out in to the community as much as possible and for bring in community groups. Make sure there is a parking and service space for this vehicle. Have students learn from community members how to clean and service this vehicle.
34.Build in a small shop and home economics area or community kitchen in the Designated Community School for both school and community use.
35.Provide for collection of toxic waste for disposal at a city eco centre.
Provide for a Good Will collection container which is secure.
36.Design walks and driveways with ease of snow removable in mind.
37.Insure that the main entrance way has a roof shelter to protect against snow fall and rain. This will also mean the building is very accessible if it is raining or snowing.
38.Have low level lighting around the walking/skiing trail.
39.Include on the school ground provision for a community garden that can also be used by the school.
40.Build in provision for electronic signals and a central control panel to monitor what doors are locked or open in the public facility.
41.Include space for daycare and elder care into the facility to eliminate parents or spouses having to go out of the facility for such services. Such services may also be valued by community members. Use student community service to help run these facilities.
42.Build in a public health unit in the public sector of the building.
43.At the entrance to the community school, have a widow’s watch where people can watch out the window for their transportation. Also have seating provisions at the entrance where elders can sit to take off footwear and outerwear.
44.Provide for easy ambulance access to the health unit.
45.Consciously include in the mix of residents people of colour, gay people, single mothers with children, disabled people and other people who are sometimes discriminated against. Children need to know that such people are important members of the human family.
46.Design provisions in a number of units for family pets. This would include safe disposal of wastes from such pets.
47.Ensure that each unit has effective ventilation of cooking odours so the cooking choices of residents do not bother residents in other units.
48.Set up a programme of voluntary school/community kindred spirit family groupings across ages, genders and races in the building and community and have a social gathering place in the public space so such groups can socialize.
49.Have signage in both official languages and in Cree or other native language as applicable, and have a residence directory that can be easily operated.
50.Have a community police office in the building. This might include a holding facility. This could come in handy in unforeseen ways, like exposing kids who have got into trouble to what is like to get on the wrong side of the law.
51. Explore using straw bales as insulation for the entire building. They are one of the best insulation materials available, and they are inexpensive and store a lot of carbon. If the building shell is designed for them at the outset, they may be very cost efficient. They will surely save on heating costs.
52. Build into the structure a straw bale insulated cold room and community freezer. People in the community with gardens and those that use the community garden on the school grounds, including the students, can store root vegetables and other produce there for a small charge. If an outlet for a community market place is also in the building, these foods can be sold for a profit with monies earned used to pay storage changes. This generates income for offsetting costs of the public part of the building and for, as an example, field trips for students.
INVOLVING ECOLOGICALLY SOUND, AFFORDABLE HOUSING
AND DESIGNATED COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
BY BRIAN STAPLES
DRAFT 1- 2007/02/05, DRAFT 2-2007/02/06, Draft 3- 2007/02/0, Draft 4- 20070210
Summary for Convenience. This paper contends that urban sprawl creates a vicious circle where inner cities decline, vital agricultural area are lost forever and the use of hydrocarbons fuels grows ever faster. The threat of global warming is raised. Based on two quotes from H. G. Wells about education and bicycles, hope for the future is possible if we become better learners. The idea of community education and of Designated Community Schools as a vehicle for the creation of learning societies is explained. The history of community schools in Alberta is reviewed. A proposal is made that communities facing school closures can build on an idea from the Mayor of Edmonton, Stephen Mandel. The creation of high density residential towers which contain community learning and participation centres on the sites of closed schools is presented. These buildings are to be highly ecologically sound and with mixed occupancy. A participatory process for community design of these facilities is advised. Steps for advancing these kinds of projects are set out.
The Purpose of This Paper. This paper was written to give community members facing neighbourhood school closure an ecologically sound and democratic process for keeping a school in their area.
A Vicious Circle.
It is well known that our planet has experienced an explosive growth of population in the last one hundred years. In the last two hundred years, with the advent of the industrial age and its concomitant use of hydrocarbon fuels, we have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by over thirty five percent. Carbon dioxide is the regulator of global climate. This has caused a rate of increase in carbon dioxide not seen for five hundred thousand years. Global warming threatens life as we know it on our planet.
Many cities in North America are characterized by rapid growth in concentric circles around the city core. As this growth continues it often impinges on highly valuable and irreplaceable areas used for agriculture. As these cities sprawl outward, they accentuate the use of hydrocarbon fuels for transportation and the heating and cooling of low density residential areas. As relatively low density growth continues, inner rings of the cities experience a decline of population as families with children move to the outskirts.
Whenever civic governments attempt to increase population density for ecological or other reasons, residents resist these initiatives. Further, as schools close in the inner
2
rings, property values begin to decline. Families with children who hear rumours of
a school closure immediately look for other schools for their young people and also often give consideration to moving even though they do not want to do that. This creates a vicious circle where inner cities decline, vital agricultural areas are lost forever and the use of hydrocarbon fuels grows ever faster.
The Race of History.
Two quotes from the British writer and thinker, H. G. Wells, are appropriate to the above cited observations. The first is, “History is in a race between education and catastrophe.” And, the second is, “Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”
If our species is to succeed in surviving global warming, the population explosion and other threats like nuclear devastation, the growing worldwide gap between the rich and the poor, religious extremism, and the ascendancy of authoritarian governments to cope with the interesting times in which we live, we simply must become better learners.
The greatest of all these threats is global warming. If we do not rectify the causes of global warming, all other considerations pale into insignificance. Living green is primary and paramount in our struggle to find solutions to the world’s great problems. For us all to live green will require the greatest international cooperative initiative that has been mounted by human kind. Mr. Wells was a true visionary in his thoughts about adults and bicycles.
On Community Education.
The western world tends to see education as a vehicle for individual betterment. It also sees it as the means to become more competitive in the global market place. We need to become more American than the Americans, more Japanese than the Japanese, more German than the Germans, and now, more Chinese than the Chinese so we can out compete them economically. The trouble is that the planet cannot take the ecological side effects of all this competition.
There is another way to view the educational process without denigrating the importance of the individual. That way is to also see the importance of people in communities learning with, through and for each other. This educational construct is known as community education. Community education is defined by the Canadian Association for Community Education as a process in which people within communities utilize educational, democratic and sound research methods for both individual and community betterment. People in communities tackling issues through community education learn about and research an issue thoroughly before deciding on a course of action. “First we learn and then we act,” is their motto. This process fosters the development of learning societies. There is no doubt that a true learning society will be very creative and
3
technologically inventive. But, it will also promote thoughtfulness about wider issues
including the interrelatedness of all life forms on the planet, among other things.
Widespread use of community education and the development of learning societies are necessary conditions for success in dealing with the great issues of our time.
On Community Schools.
As implied above, our schools tend to be seen as vehicles largely focused on economic competition. Typically, they are financed to be open twenty percent of waking hours, and to focus on twenty percent of the population, i.e., children and young people. These schools may be referred to as 20/20 Schools. And, they rely on top down, state ordered testing to ensure teachers reach very selective educational objectives which foster economic competitiveness.
A very important vehicle for implementing community education is through our schools. Truly democratic societies value all forms of learning, and this can include a different kind of school. It is possible to have schools, largely within the current givens for 20/20 schools, that become, by design, community learning and participation centres or Designated Community Schools. These kind of neighbourhood schools, regardless of grade levels, are open all waking hours, and reach out to all people in the community. They strive to become 100/100 schools. And, this is done, not in spite of children and young people, but because of them. It is to show our children that learning is an essential part of life throughout our lives. The purpose of community schools is to help people with need, regardless of age, to the learn the basics of living their lives as thoughtfully, constructively, fully and happily as possible. Designated Community Schools increase the number of people they serve and the time of that service each by four hundred percent and they cost only about five percent more per annum than the typical neighbourhood school. That is a pretty good return on investment. The characteristics of community education as a process, and Designated Community Schools are found in Appendix A.
A History of Community Schools in Alberta.
The original community schools in Alberta were the little white school houses that dotted the province around 1900. There were four thousand of them at that time. They were, by necessity, real community learning and participation centres. By 1970, Alberta was spending more per capita on our schools than any other province in Canada. But, we had the lowest rate of community based learning by adults in Canada. About one adult in ten was engaged in some kind of planned learning experience each year. We were tied at the bottom with Newfoundland. In that year the provincial government began strategies to change that learning rate. It was decided to try to reach the learning rate of Sweden at one in four or twenty five percent of Alberta adults in planned learning each year.
Two initiatives were developed to reach the one in four goal. The first, implemented in
4
1975, was Local Further Education Councils. There were 82 such councils blanketing
the province by 1984. These were interagency councils involving all kinds of learning institutions from universities to agricultural societies. The second initiative was the Alberta Community School Programme begun in 1980. By 1986, there were sixty-six Designated Community Schools scattered across the province from inner city Calgary to Menno Simmons Community School near the boarder with BC in the Peace country. In the catchment areas of the Designated Community Schools there was developed ten times the amount of community based learning than prior to their designation despite the fact that a further education council had previously been established in the region.
In 1984, Statistics Canada did the first country wide survey of adult learning in Canada. Alberta reached its one in four learning goal and was declared “Canada’s Learning Province,” by the Canadian Association for Adult Education. Unfortunately, Sweden in the meantime had reached a rate of one in two adult learners in a given year.
In 1992, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development identified seven “Learning Cities” in the world. These were Gothenburg, Vienna, Bologna, Pittsburgh, Adelaide, Kakagawa, and…Edmonton. Unfortunately, the Alberta Community School Programme was a casualty of Alberta budget cuts in 1993 and was eliminated. The Further Education Council Programme survived but endured sever financial cutbacks and is a pale shadow of its former status. The learning rate of Albert adults has also fallen back by about twenty percent and is now below the national average.
School Closures and Stephen Mandel.
First, it is important to remember as a citizen in an area that is threatened with school closure in Edmonton due to urban sprawl that this phenomena is not unique to Edmonton and also occurs in other cities in Alberta, Canada and in the United States.
Secondly, in Edmonton, the mayor, Stephen Mandel, has mused in public about the idea of putting affordable housing on designated school sites that will not likely be used under current planning provisions. That sounds like a good idea. But the idea has real import for community members where there is a distinct possibility the local school will be closed. In fact, it has import for all such communities in Edmonton and in the province where such disturbing initiatives are being planned.
We need to build on Mayor Stephen Mandel’s idea about the use of school sites, but we need to apply them to sites where schools have been closed or will be closed in future.
It is interesting how the soundness of an idea can be tested by how elegant the idea is. Elegant ideas stand up against a variety of criticisms, and they are not one dimensional. Instead, they provide solutions to a number of problems at once. They are also often valid in unforeseen ways.
5
What is proposed here is that school communities learn and research the idea of the
building of a high density residential tower, or towers, on school sites where schools are scheduled for closure. These new buildings would have a lesser footprint than their current school. Conditions would apply. The building would be designed for a mixed occupancy including a meaningful number of units of affordable housing for families with children. However there would be provisions for a significant number of other units built for working professionals, singles, seniors and so on.
Within the building would be a school that would be a community learning and participation centre for benefit of all the community (i.e., a Designated Community School as as referred to above). This would be feasible because the new building would be designed to attract a significant number of families with children to add to children already in the community. The school and related public facilities would be built by a developer as part of the high density housing unit in lieu of having to buy land, and the public part of the building would be owned by the school board and city. It could include a fitness area for the community, meeting rooms, offices for other agency people and so on. There might even be retail space in it as a part of the public facility and rented to community business people. Income generated could be used to offset operational costs of the community owned facility. Various kinds of rental/ownership options for the high density residential aspect are possible from condo to rental to a cooperative configuration, etc.. The new complexes should be models of ecological soundness.
In the event that the existing school could be economically renovated to be ecologically sound, the high density tower could be connected. The developer would pay for the renovations, again, in lieu of having to purchase land. The school would remain in public hands.
This building should be planned through the use of community and educational specifications developed by the community. We need to think large. As a model of an ecologically sound building, it might, for example, have its own wind turbine or turbines built in with the capacity to store energy produced as compressed air. The French have invented an urban auto that runs on compressed air! (See
6
Steps Ahead.
If this idea is seen as both desirable and feasible by community leaders where a school
closure is planned, a few beginning steps are suggested.
1. Approach Mayor Mandel to see if he supports this idea and believes that City Council may be supportive. Include in discussions the possibility of City financial support for ecological innovations, park upgrades to the school grounds and facilities which are under the city government jurisdiction like a police or social service office, for example.
2. Call together leaders from other communities that have had schools closed or where closure is possible to see if they are supportive of the concept. If a number of communities seem supportive, this will generate an economy of scale for several of these high density residential designated community school projects. Those that communities are supportive should approach the school board to see if it might show
interest. If the board is supportive, ask for a two year moratorium on pending school closures so communities can do the learning and research needed to advance this concept. Even if the board is not supportive, it is still an option to for the community to proceed with the educational and research option set out herein.
3. Determine if there is support for this concept in places like Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Fort McMurray, etc.. Use telephone and email to communicate.
4. Collectively approach the new Premier to see if is he is supportive.
There are implications for recreating the Alberta Community School Programme, and for support of the essential ecological aspects of each project. You might also want to talk to him about how dysfunctional to communities is his law that school closures must be dealt with in a single school year.
5. Make the process of advancing the concept as satisfying as possible to all those involved. Bring chocolates to all meetings! Learn to make meetings matter.
Conclusion.
Whatever approach a community follows in efforts to save their school will take time and community support. The community education process involved with this alternative is no exception. No doubt many compromises will be needed. It is very difficult for each of us as individuals to break out of our own contexts, and that certainly applies to communities, whatever their size. The Chinese use the same graphic character for crisis and opportunity. School closures create a crisis and signal a decline of a community as people move to the outskirts where arable land is put in jeopardy. The use of hydrocarbons grows because of urban sprawl. We have an opportunity to begin a process that offers hope for the future on many fronts. It all depends on whether you believe that history is in a race between education and catastrophe. Someone else has said that the best way to predict the future is to create the future you want.
Brian Staples, 9603 96 Street, Edmonton, T6C3Z1, brianstaples@shaw.ca, p/f 780 4668042/4668047
Appendix B
SOME IDEAS FOR THE DESIGN OF HIGH DENSITY RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS WHICH CONTAIN A DESIGNATED COMMUNITY SCHOOL AND OTHER PUBLIC FACILITIES
(It is important to think big and drop unfeasible or undesirable ideas later if need be.)
1.All balconies should have waist high solar panel facings to generate electricity for the building, the grid and to store energy as compressed air for use in compressed air vehicles. The opaque panels should not obstruct the view but will hide from view things from below like bicycles which might be stored there. Also have awnings on all balconies projecting from the balcony floor above. The awnings should also have solar panels on them.
2.Have a community/building green house on the roof of the building for growing food stuffs like tomatoes, cumbers, peppers and decorative plants. Design this as a visiting and reading refuge.
3.Using existing technology, install a vertical axis, egg beater, gearless wind turbine for electrical generation. This could be located on a pedestal in the centre of the roof of the building, projecting through the green house roof. A vertical axis machine is self regulating in all winds, and is much lighter than the standard three bladed turbine. If this is not practical, revert to placing much smaller turbines around the periphery of the roof of the building.
4.Install a sloping overhang on the roof of the building to minimize the possibility of leaking from rain penetrating the building’s water and vapour barriers. Put solar panels on this overhang. Also have eaves on it and all balcony awnings for collecting rain water. Build in the capacity to store this rain water with outlets in to each housing unit and all public facilities for use in all toilets and for other uses like watering plants, washing vehicles, etc.
5.Build in to the facility accessible channels to all units and public facilities for electricity, cable, compressed air and other conduits, the nature of which are unforeseen.
6.Ensure that the building can accommodate wireless connections to computers and for other uses.
7.Investigate the use of compressed air for generating electricity from wind and solar panel electrical generation capacities. This will mean the building can be nearly self sufficient in terms of energy needs. Insure that this air compressing unit will be house in a sound proofed chamber, probably in the building basement. Use straw bales for the sound proofing. Compressed air holds great potential as a green energy source for urban automobiles.
8.Install heating from closed circuit heat pumps using well holes drilled on site for heating and cooling.
9.Design living units with casement, triple glazed windows which are placed to enhance air flow to reduce the need for air conditioning to a minimum.
10.Create a community fitness centre with steam room and hot tub capability.
11.Establish an off site storage location for recreational trailers and other large recreational items. If more than one of these high density residential tower/community schools is built, this storage site can be shared. It should also be made available to the community.
12.Site the facility so its shadow impinges on as few other homes as possible.
13.Landscape and plant trees around the periphery of the grounds with shaded sitting sites and with outdoor fitness stations. A walking/cross country skiing trail should run through this treed peripheral area. Have some parking and cycle stands nearby for community use of this area.
14.Make good provisions for people moving households in and out. For example, have a loading and unloading dock to accommodate two moving vans, and have a freight elevator that can also move cycles and cycle trailer carts with ease. Make sure there is easy access to this elevator for people on cycles with child trailers and people who want to use adult tricycles.
15.Ensure that excellent provisions are made for access for disabled and elderly people.
16.Avoid use of carpet and other allergy unfriendly furnishings.
17.Have all public washrooms with centre drains, impermeable floors and taps where hoses can be attached for ease of cleaning.
18.Provide for an ample unheated or low heat storage area where moveable and lockable storage carts for use by community group such as Cubs, Brownies, classes etc., can be stored. These carts can then be easily rolled to whatever space such groups use in the Community School and stored in the unheated site after.
19.Provide for as much natural but screenable light as possible in large educational/community use spaces such as the gymnasium, classrooms and library.
20.Build in space for cleaning equipment carts for use by community and school groups once their activities are completed in the various rooms of the public facility.
21.Make all living units designed to save as much space as possible but also be very liveable a la the Japanese mode. Use of Murphy beds is an example.
22.Create balconies as large as possible to facilitate outdoor living.
23.Site play areas for young children within sight of kitchen windows and balconies of units designed for families with children.
24.Design highly convenient recycling and garbage disposal facilities.
25.Design the Designated Community School around a core and provide for modular expansion of classrooms if future demand so dictates.
26.Put in a state of the art meeting room for up to thirty people designed to facilitate shared decision making in the operation of the school and the facility. Such a room will also prove to be in great demand by community members.
28.Ensure steps are taken to reduce sound transmission between units in the complex.
29.Emphasize community service, work experience, student/senior pairing, mass participation sports, arts and fitness activities, extensive participation by students in democratic school governance and the development of very strong sense of community in the student body and with the geographic community. This will minimize vandalism, bullying and involvement in gangs and cliques among the student body. This should go without saying in a Designated Community School.
30.Design the building using a much recyclable materials as possible. Also plan ahead so it can be dismantled with a view to be able to salvage as much of the building materials as possible.
31.Build lifelong sports venues like tennis courts, volley ball and basketball courts, and outdoor chess and checkers boards on the school grounds to encourage intergeneration contact.
32.Playing fields should be designed for massive participation with, for examples, smaller cross field areas for games like soccer, continental hand ball, touch football, field hockey etc.. This will mean more players are actually exposed to the ball used in such games! It will also mean that school grounds can be used for other things like community gardens.
32.Provide for ease of access to a school and community bus for getting students out in to the community as much as possible and for bring in community groups. Make sure there is a parking and service space for this vehicle. Have students learn from community members how to clean and service this vehicle.
34.Build in a small shop and home economics area or community kitchen in the Designated Community School for both school and community use.
35.Provide for collection of toxic waste for disposal at a city eco centre.
Provide for a Good Will collection container which is secure.
36.Design walks and driveways with ease of snow removable in mind.
37.Insure that the main entrance way has a roof shelter to protect against snow fall and rain. This will also mean the building is very accessible if it is raining or snowing.
38.Have low level lighting around the walking/skiing trail.
39.Include on the school ground provision for a community garden that can also be used by the school.
40.Build in provision for electronic signals and a central control panel to monitor what doors are locked or open in the public facility.
41.Include space for daycare and elder care into the facility to eliminate parents or spouses having to go out of the facility for such services. Such services may also be valued by community members. Use student community service to help run these facilities.
42.Build in a public health unit in the public sector of the building.
43.At the entrance to the community school, have a widow’s watch where people can watch out the window for their transportation. Also have seating provisions at the entrance where elders can sit to take off footwear and outerwear.
44.Provide for easy ambulance access to the health unit.
45.Consciously include in the mix of residents people of colour, gay people, single mothers with children, disabled people and other people who are sometimes discriminated against. Children need to know that such people are important members of the human family.
46.Design provisions in a number of units for family pets. This would include safe disposal of wastes from such pets.
47.Ensure that each unit has effective ventilation of cooking odours so the cooking choices of residents do not bother residents in other units.
48.Set up a programme of voluntary school/community kindred spirit family groupings across ages, genders and races in the building and community and have a social gathering place in the public space so such groups can socialize.
49.Have signage in both official languages and in Cree or other native language as applicable, and have a residence directory that can be easily operated.
50.Have a community police office in the building. This might include a holding facility. This could come in handy in unforeseen ways, like exposing kids who have got into trouble to what is like to get on the wrong side of the law.
51. Explore using straw bales as insulation for the entire building. They are one of the best insulation materials available, and they are inexpensive and store a lot of carbon. If the building shell is designed for them at the outset, they may be very cost efficient. They will surely save on heating costs.
52. Build into the structure a straw bale insulated cold room and community freezer. People in the community with gardens and those that use the community garden on the school grounds, including the students, can store root vegetables and other produce there for a small charge. If an outlet for a community market place is also in the building, these foods can be sold for a profit with monies earned used to pay storage changes. This generates income for offsetting costs of the public part of the building and for, as an example, field trips for students.
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