so here we are and it looks in the library at belmont high school which looks very different from it has in the past and there's a lot of thought that's been put into this and i want to back up to why there's been a lot of thought put into this room one you know the enrollment at belmont high school is exploding we used to have classes of two hundred seventy five now the three hundred fourteen three hundred forty and our juniors and seniors are the last two hundred classes to go through and we will be well over three hundred for each class i believe are roman to day we used to be below twelve hundred now we're one thousand two hundred and forty eight students so we really have exploded with our roman and we just unrolled a couple more today so that is belmont high school is not a bubble it goes all the way back to k through twelve and it's not something that's to go away so knowing that an experience of what happens here in the library is something needed to be done to accommodate students and let me describe to you the situation of the library before we started thinking common learning space a many days students will come during their freeze to the library and they will be locked out of the library because we're at full capacity and we can't allow any more students and usually there's a group waiting for two to leave for two to come in and this isn't productive time for students and they're not learning they're waiting as if they're at a deli line for their ticket to be called to come on into the library  the library was chopped up we had individual carols over here over on the left hand side some tables here we had many rows of books that were not being taken out what we did is we inventory students who were interested in what students were taking and through that inventory we narrowed it down to exactly what they're interested what they're taking now what hasn't been taken out in four years three years and there was a large number of books so students are not coming here to take out books this isn't the sole knowledge along with a classroom to gain all the knowledge it's online so they need a computer access so we brought the books down to a usable level left room to expand to x explore to test and see if those interest in fiction nonfiction whatever it may be that the interest is so we left room to grow so w that left some pretty bare walls as you may remember from last year carpet that was patched up it was looking kind of sad and i wanted to increase the seating at the same time make every inch of this library usable every inch has been thought out so back to the problem kids waiting at the door to command because we're at full capacity chopped up a learning areas so if you a quiet study area you're lucky if you could find a corner and you notice in between the bookcases is a desk they're in a chair they would fight for those seats because it's quiet and it's private and those  base and it wasn't being utilized the space just simply was just housing twenty eight computers and a lot of random tables and students were not allowed to pass through so if you were a teacher you could sign out that large computer lab twenty eight computers but students were allowed to use those computers because there was no supervision so the mezzanine was off limits most of the time unless a teacher signed it out students had twelve computers for almost twelve hundred students in the library we have a cluster here here and over to my left and that was it waiting in line to get on the computer and there was only one printer for twelve hundred students so you can imagine what it's like to be a student to come out and come into the library and trying to get work done it's if you're lucky to get a seat if you're lucky to get at the computer and then hopefully when you print up no one grabs your work so it was a challenge so with that in mind and spend that way for a while wasted space challenge of sitting challenge of computers to carefully research and think about the space that we have within a tight budget  with no budget actually so but that grew as well but i'll talk about that in a second so here i am i'm trying to envision a library because libraries of the past that i use them for no longer exists probably the same with you folks libraries of the past and no longer exist and they use more of a learning space and there are different kinds of learners different modes allergies of learning and we have to adapt to their different modalities so with that in mind i spent about a year and a half and i looked at different schools i looked at read a lot i went online and looked at furniture furniture is important to the space and with that i started visioning what this library to look like as a common learning space so with that said i shared out my vision with the p t o and with other folks to help get this into the twenty first century to become a common learning space so let me define a common learning space to comment learning spaces a space that is flexible that can be converted into anything that we need at that moment for example i'm sure the  and the board came and drag these tables along to form this large table these tables have been drag for years and it's done a number on the carpet and on the legs and it's not easy they're heavy tables furniture is flexible so that this can become a professional development room for the school for the town and it could be shaped in a you shape with a large screen so the french are then the next day needs to be transformed into a common learning space for students and maybe later that afternoon there's group work going on so this area needs to be flexible as much as possible so what we did was it looked at the furniture and will be replacing the french show with what's called tables that are we'll borrow tables and stead of four legs there are two wheels and two legs on one side and you lift up the table and you simply roll it into we're ever position that you need no more dragging no more room in the carpet scratching so it's flexible so that's on its way back or it but it's coming and will be replacing these hard tables with wheelbarrow tables as what they're called so we can make it into anything that we want so flexible furniture is a common learning space and also the space moss appeal to different modes allergies of learning we all have different modalities of learning we learning groups we learn into visually we are spatial learners we're independent learners and we're a little of everything so during the day your child is going through these different modalities of learning and classes and this room needs to appeal to a good twenty of them so you know when i saw the spaces like how am i going to apply this to all the modalities of learning so the through the research came up with a wheelbarrow table and i came up with spaces so what we've done here is we've divided the library into different learning different zones so over to my right and i give this tour what we're going to do over here to the right you'll see the floors taped off it's going to be tiled over here that it can absorb sound and you will we're going to have an area where kids can sit at the counter near the windows over there and they'll be able to charge whichever aleck electrical device that they have that they're i pad their phone or whatever it is they'll be accounted there with outlets down below and they can charge this is the modern day learner so in the tile area is going to be an area called the library caf so before you think i'm certain coffee and don't it's like duncan dunn i'm not doing that so we've been battling with kids constantly here at the library with eating in the library it's been every year i can predict that's going to happen so instead of beating i'm going to join them so this is over here this l shape will be the library cafe that kids are allowed to eat or allowed to bring whatever drinks they want and and they'll be high top tables that they can sit at so it's easily defined visually so with the tile and with the tables so students will be allowed to bring in anything to eat now in the library when we announced this to students the eleventh and twelfth grade applauded us at our class meeting and all the years of given that class meeting they have never applauded so they love it they love it so we're joining them rather than you know fighting with them so it's a surface we can keep clean  can be mopped easily if there's a spill guy doesn't need space for them so it's a good size and that is this social learning a lot of kids learn socially some calling this these social zone kids learn by talking to each other and going back and forth and not necessarily in a desk in a row what i call cell and bell rooms where they sit in these cell classrooms they move around over here so this is a social learning area of the social zone so once you get out the library caf you work your way across the room and you have these tables that you wrap but again they'll be flexible there will borrow tables they can be configured in any way and this is more of a collaborative learning space and this is where kids learn together where they're working on sharing information and so kids in groups will be sitting together as you are right here so as this area is defined all flexible again furniture we come over to the far side of the library and this is the individual carole's and we've more than doubled the individual cows and this is for the individual learners so this is the individual's own collaborative zone and this is the social zone what we had in the past is we had these carols over here to the far right we had a couple over here there was no quiet or defined area for students and these folks in the middle were disrupting those folks over there on the right and we never had the cafe so but they just made their own cafe so i needed to define that as separate it so as a student when you command you know where you want to go either to the social zone or the collaborative zone or over here to the independent zone and like i said we've doubled the seating in the library and especially with the independent carole's but there's one more aspect of the collaborative zone that we needed to figure into this dynamic and this is when i approached the p t o to give me a hand with the two rooms that you see in the back those two rooms are project rooms that students can sign with the library in and up to ten eleven maybe twelve students could work on a project together and this is in conjunction with the foundation for belmont education you can command with your i pad or any electronically electronic device and you can hook up to the apple television that's in the ceiling and then communicate to the flat screen television on the wall you could work in a project and you can jump from one electronic device to another and display your work in that room and work collaboratively electronically and quiets those rooms are really quite we've designed them to have soundproofing in the ceiling and also carpet on the floors so we've got the two project rooms thanks to the p t o s donation and also you'll notice that there's glass in front of those so they still can be monitored we don't need to hire someone to supervise the students we're going to trust them and we can monitor they're doing so this is the bottom level quick review we've got a socialism which is going to be very popular we've got a collaborative zone rate here we've got the independent zone of learning and then we've got collaborative learning electronic in the back so we really have redefined this space and doubled the seeding that's in this room so that kids aren't pulling deli tickets at the door to get in a waiting for two to leave or to  so we're finding that we have not yet had to close the library that there is enough seating now for everyone but there's more that's a bottom half and the mezzanine the large space that only has twenty computers that students were allowed to go up there what we did upstairs is we decided to break that into two separate rooms now that computer level fit over and into the right room all twenty eight computers will fit into that ro nicely and it's an appropriate size and so we've got a computer lab that teachers can sign out when there isn't a class in there we're opening up the computer lab to the students i explained to the students that we're going to treat you as we expect you to act in that we trust you in these spaces and our goal is to make sure that they remain open and i really need their help to police each other to make sure that it's respectful and that they respect the equipment so i kind of guilt to them a little bit and to monitoring each other but they're really excited about this and i have a lot of trust in them that they will be successful so when there isn't a class in the computer lab is open to students so i just went from twelve computer to computers to over forty for our students and multiple printers so the need is being met finally over on the left hand side is a teacher project room haven't come up with a creative name to call the innovation room or something like that all the furniture in that room is on casters and it's designed to be lean it so that you kid you use it in a huge shape for professional development for teachers and you could break the tables apart easily it could be group learning independent learning that room it was built to be flexible for anything that we need it for and you could wheel the tables out they fit through the doors and you could be an empty room half filled room with furniture it could be all filled and again it's lean furniture but appropriate for classrooms as well and they'll be a smart board and on the side walls will be a white board so that project based learning could happen up in that project and teachers will sign that up so i envision that one being taken out often along the railing we used to have these independent carols  out on top of filing cabinets and it was kind of you know put together a makeshift style but we'll have independent carols up there for students who want to get away from over here or need even more quiet space and they'll be able to study along that railing when it's not being used we're going to schedule the national honor society to tutor students they never had the space to tutor students we kind of put them in a corner and hope that it worked out because we didn't have it so that will also be a designated area for the national honor society to students to to students who need assistance in academics so we finally have a disease space for them and then students are now allowed to go from the foreign language side of the hallway to the math side of the hallway by going through the mezzanine we're going to open up that hallway and for some reason that got a lot larger round of applause by the students i'm not sure why  now those doors will be open so with all of this comes a trust and it comes responsibility and mr muldoon's words you treat kids as you expect them to behave and that's what we're doing we've always had the reason we don't have coverage we don't have coverage i think it's time to trust students to respect the space and based on the reception we've been receiving i believe they will one last thing that we have done we have unlocked a little theater during the day for students who needed additional study space that is designated the quiet area to go and study and the kids been really good about monitoring each other so this can get very loud with your social zone in your collaborative zone in independent should be a little quieter but the volume does raise in here but the little theatre is now open for students to just go in during the day we leave the doors open and we've had no problems in that seats up to one hundred fifty so we've come a long way from putting bodyguards at the door to make sure no one comes in because we're full too it's all open with trust and i'm looking forward to all these renovations being done and we're working on that now and we're also a design locations for different learners so we have to go to the student  today and what they are doing we can't drag them into a school with yesterday and say you must do it this way so we're going to them and their style of learning and we're creating all of this design and i'm really excited about that because appealing to all students so really excited and i'm open for questions at one point we did have two library aides and we were able to open the library after school for an hour with that that's no longer and that that is a goal of mine kind of separate from this but to extend this library at the library hours beyond the school day personally i think we have a responsibility to leave this open for kids after school we're kicking them out locking them out at two twenty five and i don't think that's right you know the last minutes of the last five minutes of school and i definitely want that for the kids they want it you know it's a shame at the end of the day to see ok time to go that's not what we're about we have to go to them where in the past we have asked kids to come to us we have to go to who they are how they learn and their own clocks not not my clock i mean bed by eight thirty so they're not so changing i thinking here we're looking at end of september october ish around there again that depends on deliveries the furniture that you're sitting at right now i expected this week and i was told that it will be near the end of october because of delays so i'm hoping the end of september october to get things going my first priority i made that clear to the folks in charge is these two project rooms seem to be fully up and running they're almost there they v s e was just finished up  the soundproofing is going in for the ceiling and it's a matter of just you know minor work at this point electricals done so that's the priority the kids want all the kids want the tile for so they can they need overhead that's what they want  us and then that yeah it's open during the school day seven thirty five i think she allows kids in a around seven thirty and to twenty five i think she closes at two thirty letter in for about give it take thirteen fourteen years we sent it in april and we hear back in the fall time usually late fall this was thoughtfully planned out to the point where it's what is in here  can be transferable such as the furniture that you see the computers the rooms you will always need project rooms no matter what's the school's change every three to five years so it will be a different  need coming through project rooms needed to happen back when the building when this was built in the seventy's that is something that's not going to go away the same thing the two rooms upstairs let's say  years from now we have no computer labs that room can easily be transferred over to something different and was designed that way to give you an example no built ins i've specifically requested no built as do not build in anything everything must be flexible yes give me another week and i'll tackle that one and this is this was my focus in the past that used to be open for kids to command in play basketball or whatever between classes during their freeze we found that a lot of students took advantage of that and they loved it because they burned off some energy for one and we found that their low calmer in the classroom for those who have a d h d because they had a chance to get it out we had to close that when the budget cuts came and that sits pretty much vacant most of the day because as this population is exploding at belmont high school it is carotid and it is louder and i can't afford to have any resource sit idle i look at my job is utilizing all resources personnel space budgets i've got to use it efficiently as possible and i cannot afford to keep that mezzanine close these kids need to go somewhere so that's why there was a big focus knowing that bubble was coming on this area but that's an area that another opportunity to open up for kids yes yes we that's a good question we decrease the number of seats and or it can manage the previous library and did that to help manage the crowd with throwing the responsibility on the kids to manage this i'm able to increase it and the kids are much more manageable so we had roughly i haven't counted because other tables are coming in  decrease but at any given point we probably closed it at around sixty seventy five students which is really low for this space and i have at least double that at least know probably much more than that we haven't had to stand at the door be a bouncer and ask him to wait their turn to command and then they come in they socialize and they leave so it's also you know the big social place and it's the heart of the school this is the heart of belmont high school every kid goes through this room every day at least once a day so the heart of the school really should be available  students all learners and we need to go to them again because they are transients and they are moving in packs and moving around and so yeah this is the heart of the school so i'm really proud that we did something with the heart to hopefully spill out of the classrooms  yes let me just say cafeteria that was true last year there was enough tables we did bring in more tables we're finding we do have enough seats this year but that doesn't mean it's all good it's a very crowded cafeteria and difficult to manage because of the numbers so they do have a seat in the cafeteria but it is a very tight cafeteria our other assistant principal sherri turner spent a lot of the summer just balancing out kids free time to make sure that we can rotate these kids through the cafeteria at a low level rather than seven hundred kids having lunch all the same time the next mob is only one hundred thirty five as far as the classroom i think you mentioned science is a good example that is true we do have seats for kids and we've run out of the rows and if you bet in our science classrooms you will you know what i'm talking about that one happens lecture with seeds the other half is a lab at the tables we've run out of seats and we have kids sitting at the lab tables for instruction not so much for a lab so that is true yes so and the plan well last year we started a modeling group around the old methods and the modeling group basically is what's coming into belmont what's our current situation what's coming into belmont and how can we work with and how can we fix that so what the modeling group did is they came up with our current situation and with recommendations and that modeling group is given to the new superintendent it's actually look at the help plan district why not just belmont high school but district wide what are we going to do as i talk about space and we've talked about renovations for over a decade at belmont high it's also an issue at the other schools as well all good question there are more students coming in than left graduating class was i think is wrong to seventy six around there and now we have three hundred in seventeen eighteen nineteen freshman and then kids that transferred into the school so do we have more sections you need a person to offer another section so basically what we're doing is we're taking the same ninety teachers and we're just kind of juggling instead of an honors can you teach a c p class because the numbers are really high so the sections have an increase we're just kind of selecting where the numbers are high the benches i want to mention the benches that you see around the school and please take a look at them as you exit out tonight that to manage the symptoms kids need to go somewhere and the benches through out the school is providing a space for a kid to sit while they have a free where before we didn't have that i'm not getting to the root which means something much more grander as you said so we're treating symptoms and we're doing the best we can with that