The Allegheny Valley School District should use a $50,000 grant to redesign part of a conference room at Springdale Junior-Senior High School into a student lounge, according to people working on the project.
Brett Slezak, district technology supervisor and the point person for the project, and Daniel Engen, president of VEBH Architects, presented the new concept for the Rachel Carson Conference Room to the school board last week.
The redesign they presented was for a part of the room designated as a space for students. In fact, a group of students were involved in the redesign .
“We want them to have part of the space and have the students feel they own the space,” Slezak said.
What they came up with is “Kilowatt Korner.”
“That’s what the kids have been calling it since we started,” Slezak said.
The name is a reference to the district’s community history as an electricity generating hub from which the school took the name for its sports teams, the Dynamos.
“Reddy Kilowatt” was a cartoon character West Penn Power used to promote its product. The designers came across a piece of artwork featuring Reddy Kilowatt they hope to incorporate into a neon sign for the student space.
Kilowatt Korner is about a third of the 1,200-square-foot conference room.
The room can be partitioned into thirds with movable walls.
Kilowatt Korner will be directly across from the cafeteria. It will have a long window along one wall looking out onto the hallway and some new pedestal pub-type tables with stools and some other new furniture for students to use when they go to the room to study or socialize. The space will be home to the student store which has taken root at the junior-senior high school.
The project is being completed with a $50,000 Blueprint For Learning Grant the district received from Remake Learning.
Slezak told the board when it accepted the grant in November that “reimagining” spaces to help and support students is one of the ways to achieve that aim.
“The original plan when we applied for the grant was to see how we can renovate the library space,” Slezak said.
Board member Paula Jean Moretti, said the redesign was “beautiful” but wondered what happened to the library concept.
“We were supposed to be updated about the design progress and here we are with a final design and we’re ready to go to bid,” she said.
Slezak said during the design process the library was discussed but the architects, interior designers and students who participated all came to the conclusion the Rachel Carson room was the best candidate for the redesign.
“It was all about how people use the space, not how pretty it is,” Slezak said, adding the general feeling was this is a space to which the students will gravitate.
In addition, he said the design professionals from VEBH, who are donating their time and efforts to the project, believe the tight $50,000 budget wouldn’t make much of a change in the library which is a larger space. Board member James Gaschler recalled seeing references to the redesign in board updates from the administration.
“Personally, I feel updated enough to feel comfortable with this,” he said.
“It looks like a wonderful use for that area,” board President Larry Pollick said.
Superintendent Pat Graczyk said design is what the administration is proposing and if the board approves it at its upcoming meeting, it will be ready to go out for bids.