BUILDING FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY - Kennedy Bibliothek

180. Community High School got started on the premise that in order to
provide an educational alternative which enlarges its capacity by the extensive
use of community resources, it would only need an empty facility
instead of a highly equipped secondary school facility. This assumption
had to be revised during the first year when it became clear that a basic,
stock of books and media was needed for the proper functioning of the
school. On the other hand, it needs very much fewer specialised and
highly equipped areas (e.g. for chemistry, physics, biology, arts, etc.)
since pupils use laboratories in the University and private workshops;
e.g. of local artisans or other agencies. There is, however, a higher
demand for meeting rooms and offices for the co-ordination and planning of
schedules and courses. An interesting addition is the small creche which
serves pupil mothers and fathers as well as the immediate neighbourhood,
and is staffed by the pupils themselves in shifts. In terms of providing
a relevant economic educational alternative for the future, Community High
School seems to surpass any of the models which have been described in
this report. The important question which has not been answered yet (as
there are only few examples of its kind) is to which extent can it be implemented
on a city-wide scale without depleting community resources?
Comments
181. Ann Arbor's city-wide process for planning educational facilities
in co-ordination with other social services, offers a number of valuable
lessons:
i) in terms of citizen participation:
- in innumerable instances problems or issues arise which have
been encountered or worked through in a similar process in
another part of the city; therefore, procedures of cross reference
should be set up to avoid duplication of efforts as
far as possible; methods might include sending delegates from
each local planning committee to at least one other committee,
monthly meetings of representatives from all local planning
processes, distribution of working papers, seminars, and discussions
on purposes and aspects of planning;
ii) in terms of central administration and consultants:
- central administration and local committees should work together
to brief consultants on local issues and goals; all
three together should set out a timetable and critical path
for the entire process with interim target dates;
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