- November 15, 2024
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Members of Project LINK do the honors at the ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, Feb. 18. Photo by Jacque Estes
Vibrant green walls are part of the new look in the Bulldog Learning Commons at FPC. Photo by Jacque Estes
Media Specialist Sara Reckenwald, speaks at the ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, Feb. 18. Photo by Jacque Estes
Members of the Problem Solvers Project LINK team had the attention of Superintendent Jacob Oliva, and everyone else who attended the ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, Feb. 18. Photo by Jacque Estes
Students Christian Gazzoli, Ayden Craig, Adrianna Bigwitch, and Kevin Logan, use the study couch at the Bulldog Learning Commons. Photo by Jacque Estes
Diane Tomko (left), watches as another Community Problem Solvers class listen to classmates' presentation in the Bulldog Learning Commons. Photo by Jacque Estes
Members of the FPC band closed out the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Bulldog Learning Commons at FPC, on Thursday, Feb. 18. Photo by Jacque Estes
Freshman Kelsey Perry uses one of the nooks at the Bulldog Learning Commons. Photo by Jacque Estes
New student study area at the Bulldog Learning Commons at FPC. Photo by Jacque Estes
When Flagler Schools Superintendent Jacob Oliva was asked what his high school library was like, he answered with no hesitation.
“It was not like this,” Oliva said. “It was very traditional, and it was a place nobody wanted to go to. It wasn’t warm and inviting, and I remember that it was where our 10th grade English class would take us to write our research paper.”
He wasn’t the only adult at the ribbon cutting of the Bulldog Learning Commons on Thursday, Feb. 18, wishing their high school had a place like this for studying.
The five community problem solving students, Judy Colindres, Kayla Dance, Ivana Moore,Vasthi Malvoisin and r Sarah Dance, all wore their Project LINK (Learning and Incorporating New Knowledge) T-shirts as they gave tours of the Commons to more than 50 people who came for the ribbon cutting.
Kayla Dance and Judy selected this for the Community Problem Solving project last year.
“A year ago Kayla and I were looking for community problem solving project,” Judy told the group gathered for the ceremony. “Kayla wanted to be more hands on, and I wanted to do something that involved reading. The media center had not been updated for the past 10 years.”
That update was also a Community Problem Solving group project that added the FAME Café in the then “media center.”
FPC Principal Dusty Sims admitted that the extraordinary outcome was due to the fact that the planning was left up to the students.
“We as educators had to get out of the way and turn it over to ladies,” Sims said. “When we finally said, ‘let’s get out of the way and let you take over,' they took it beyond our imaginations.”
Media specialist and Community Problem Solving Coach, Sarah Reckenwald, stepped away from her traditional role with the group.
“I co-coach Community Problem Solving with Diane Tomko,” Reckenwald said. “For this project we determined it would be better if I worked as a community partner, instead of a coach.”
The team brainstormed ideas with Reckenwald, and nearly all of the student’s ideas were approved. The one exception – bean bag chairs.
“That was one of the first ideas, and I thought we needed something more substantial,” Reckenwald said. “The furniture was purchased through capital dollars. Every school gets some and Mr. Sims agreed we could use capital dollars to finish.”
The furniture selected is intended to accommodate different styles of learning. Round barrel type stuffed chairs that move up and down and wobble slightly for students who aren’t comfortable sitting still as they study, over sized chairs, and a study couch were just some of the changes.
“We researched furniture and colors, and how they affect the studying space and how you learn” Sarah said.
In keeping with the student designed theme, the artwork inside the double glass entry doors was a project done last year in Ed Beckett’s Digital Design 2 class.
“She (Sarah Reckenwald) wanted something abstract in design, and something in the same color scheme as the new Media Center colors, (purple, gray and lime green),” Beckett said in an email “So I took photos of the colors and make a sampler for the kids so they could all get the colors right in PhotoShop. I gave them some direction on the whole abstract idea theme and turned them loose.”
The winning art was created by Giana Pubill.
The name, Bulldog Learning Commons, was also the result of a student survey.
The initial response from the student body has been supportive.
“More are coming in and using the area,” Sarah said. “Some come in for breakfast, and some don’t want to sit in the cafeteria, so they bring their lunch into the café area.”
For the average person or group, the project would have been over after the ribbon cutting. Not for these five students. The students have their eyes on some underused space in a room behind the circulation desk. Their plans are to turn the room, which houses a laminator, paper, paper cutter, (and hopefully a 3-D printer one day) into a place for groups like the SGA to create their posters and do their creative projects.
“The next stage of our project is to get more teachers to use the Commons,” Sarah said. “Also to have more clubs use it after school, and maybe expand the hours.”
Before the tours began John Fischer, former school board member, watched as Diane Tomko supervised another Problem Solvers class in the Tidebreak area, and commented about how her students are always doing extraordinary things.
“She is very calming, and she gets things done,” Fischer said. “If we had more people like that in our world we’d have a better world.”
