Page 11 - School Planning & Management, July/August 2019

There are new names for spaces as well. There are “maker” spaces designed for tinkering with burgeoning digital technologies. Maker- spaces have become so common that they have become a one-word term: makerspaces. These repurposed spaces aim to support in- struction as well as computer work, media and other undertakings.
In short, school spaces are no longer de- signed to support one activity.
Security Concerns
Are Also Affecting School Design
Perhaps chief among today’s security chal- lenges is the problem of controlling who, be- yond students, teachers and authorized adults, can get into schools.
In recent years, emotionally compromised adults or troubled students have shown up at schools with with the aim of harming students in one way or another.
To deal with these threats, some districts have hired security professionals to patrol their school buildings and their entrances.
In addition, many school designs have posi- tioned a security vestibule outside the front door of the school building. In such schools, the ves- tibule as well as other school doors are locked after students enter the schools in the morning. The only way for anyone to enter such schools during the day is to apply to a staffer inside the main vestibule at the front door.
“We create security tools in and around these vestibules, as well as in the reception and administrative areas inside schools,” says H. Wil- liam Novian, a senior associate at JMT Architec- ture headquartered in Hunt Valley, MD.
“The vestibule is a separate area positioned in front of the administrative and classroom areas of the school. To enter the school, a visitor must negotiate his or her way through the staffed vestibule.”
At the vestibule, a security staffer will ask questions of visitors. May I see your identifi-
cation? Next comes a series of questions that must be answered without reference to ID cards, which remain with the security person. What is your name and address? What is your business here today? And so on.
the visitor, take
his or her ID and run the driver’s license through a system specially designed to call out individuals with records of bad acts, criminal or otherwise. Finally, the visitor will receive a visitor’s badge with his or her name on it. Sometimes the badges are color coded in ways
that identify where in the school the visitor has been cleared to go.
These various vetting tasks might be as- signed differently, with the visitor having his or her ID vetted at the vestibule and only showing the ID at the office inside the school. It all de- pends upon how the school wants to organize the process.
In the end, educational trends and secu- rity concerns are leading communities and administrators to ask school architects and designers to think about new approaches to school design that not only enhance educa- tional experiences but also help to ensure the safety and security of students, faculty and administrators. It is a challenging undertaking, especially compared to the way schools have been designed in the past. CPM
The vetting continues inside the school’s front door, where the secretary or other employee in the administrative area of the school will observe
There are “maker” spaces designed for tinkering with burgeoning digital technologies. These repurposed spaces aim to support instruction as well as computer work, media and other undertakings.
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