What do you see when you envision a classroom? If it is rows of students at desks, I’m here to tell you that this is no longer the case. This is one of the reasons West Clermont Schools is taking a closer look at its facilities.
Another reason for honing in on our building challenges is that enrollment is steadily rising, particularly at our elementary schools. Predictive data shows that we will incur 830+ new students in the next five years. In some instances, our district is already short on space, such as at Merwin Elementary, where we added modulars last school year.
Other factors impacting our capacity and learning environment include:
- Bringing back elementary specials (art, music, physical education, and career awareness)
- Increasing needs of diverse learners
- All-day kindergarten
- Maintenance challenges resulting from aging buildings
Over the past 18 months, we have offered more than 50 community engagement opportunities. Parents, staff, and community members have had the chance to learn more about where we’ve been, our current challenges, and offer input to help move our district forward through surveys, meetings, and focus groups. To date, we have concentrated our efforts on safety and well-being, educational programming, and transportation. Along with facilities, we will be looking at our overall purpose and design throughout the 2023-24 school year. Our community’s feedback and ideas are critical to our future because West Clermont Schools ultimately belong to you, our resident taxpayers.
We will continue these engagement opportunities this fall through building tours. We hope you’ll join us at an upcoming event to learn more about what it takes to maintain our facilities, the great programming we provide, and potential areas for improvement.
- Sept. 11 – West Clermont Middle School, 6 PM
- Oct. 17 – Merwin Elementary, 6 PM
- Nov. 16 – Clough Pike Elementary, 6 PM
West Clermont’s end goal is to provide equitable and adequate facilities for all of our students. We know that to achieve our Portrait of a Graduate outcomes, we must provide learning environments where students feel safe and comfortable, and where they have room to engage in interactive, hands-on learning.
Our schools are more than just buildings; rather, they are building blocks for the future of our students and community. You can dive deeper into our facility challenges in Volume 3 of our Roadmap Report, available on our website at westcler.org/roadmap-reports, and learn more about our building tours at westcler.org/tours.
By Natasha L. Adams, Superintendent and CEO West Clermont School District