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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Monday, March 28, 2005

Case Middle School state of the art

By James Gonser and Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writers

Six years of planning and construction and a $62 million investment have gone into creating the new Case Middle School at Punahou School and for the administrators, teachers and students using the new facility, the end result has been worth the effort.

Students walk under a skylight at the new Case Middle School on the Punahou campus. The $62 million school takes advantage of windows everywhere to permit massive amounts of natural light.

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The middle school, which has more than 1,000 students, is in nine new buildings on the Manoa campus. The facility is considered one of the most forward thinking in the country in terms of sustainable design features and structuring of middle school education.

"This is an educational laboratory in sustainability," said Steve Piper, director of the the school's physical plant. "When I talk to other leaders in the (education) community, the state Department of Education or the University of Hawai'i, the problem is the up-front cost. They have a budget they have to deal with. They say we can't afford this, when the reality is they can't afford not to do it."

Piper said all the sustainable features added about 5 percent to the cost of the project, which he expects to recoup in seven or eight years from savings in electricity and water bills.

The school was designed by architect John Hara with the help of a 16-member steering committee of teachers, administrators and staff who researched new educational concepts of open classrooms and team teaching and decided how to integrate them into a "green" building.

"When we started this project in 1999 the first part was to develop the educational philosophy of what a middle school is," Hara said. "That went on eventually to the actual design of the building and outfitting the whole thing. There is the educational part of it, there is the architectural part of it and then the sustainable design part of it."

A COST COMPARISON

Kapolei High: $49 million

Nanaikapono Elementary: $23 million

Ocean Pointe Elementary: $25 million (projected)

Case Middle School*: $62 million

*Did not include a cafeteria, gymnasium or library

Sustainable design is defined as a development that minimizes or eliminates environmental impacts in five general areas: site selection, water conservation, conservation of energy and resources, selection of materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

The school's semi-open buildings are situated to take advantage of prevailing trade winds, and windows everywhere let in massive amounts of natural light. The rain gutters collect water for campus landscaping and a giant thermal energy storage system, which takes advantage of cheap electricity rates at night to make ice and uses it to cool the buildings the next day.

The buildings have self-regulating lights, rubber floors and waterless urinals, and the school lockers and restroom counters are made out of recycled milk containers.

Like many middle schools, Punahou has moved toward a team structure, which breaks each grade level into groups of students that move among the same core teachers, allowing for familiarity among the students and more time to coordinate for teachers.

The team approach has worked at Kapolei High School, one of the places Case Middle School planners looked when they were developing plans.

To break up the routine, classrooms at Case Middle School differ by size and design. The school's layout allows teams of students and teachers in each grade to interact more easily.

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The $49 million high school, which opened in 2000, also opted for single-grade classroom buildings. Portable walls allow the teams to break into three classrooms, if they choose.

After almost five years, principal Al Nagasako said it has been a success. Teachers enjoy working in teams because it gives them more time to interact, fit in planning time during the day and see each other teach.

"The dialog and professional discussion you hear among the teachers is just fabulous ... something as a principal you really want to hear," Nagasako said. "They're always focused on how we can get better."

The Case Middle School building layout is also conducive to team learning, with each team occupying one floor and all core classrooms are within sight. This gives teachers more flexibility in scheduling and even planning off-site trips — something that wasn't possible when teachers were separated by walls and flights of stairs and locked into a 45-minute class period.

The abundance of windows not only cheers up the classrooms with natural light, but allows teachers more creativity in planning learning activities.

Students will be able to work independently or in small groups in the Creative Learning Centers — large, open spaces where they can pursue their own projects, at Punahou's Case Middle School.

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

With wide-open spaces scattered throughout the buildings, students can spread out both inside and outside the classroom to work independently or in small groups, while teachers observe though the windows.

"You see everything, but we're not always in their faces," explained sixth-grade teacher Bob Tam.

The large common areas also give students a covered area to set up large projects, such as constructing cardboard canoes or creating an airport simulation, a project that would have been difficult if confined to a classroom and hemmed in by furniture.

Studies show that this small group work is effective.

"This age group is hands-on. They aren't good passive learners," said seventh-grade team leader Mary Robinson.

Students Abby Yosaitis, left, and Jade Ogoshi use lockers that are made from recycled milk containers, part of the school's "green" program intended to help students learn about the environment.

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Sixth-graders have used their two buildings since September and the seventh- and eighth-graders moved into their new classrooms in January. The final details are being finished for the Creative Learning Centers, large open spaces where students can pursue their own projects, which are expected to open next month.

Studying in a "green" building is helping teach the students about the importance of protecting the environment. Sixth-grader Adelina Manaut said the new school is "nice and pretty" while classmate Sarah Takenaka said "it teaches us to conserve what we have."

Their classmate Adrian Lee said he likes the new school better than the buildings the fifth-graders used last year.

"It's cleaner. There's a lot more space. The desks are bigger than last year," he said.

Ryan Urehara, a seventh-grader, likes the new buildings, but isn't as thrilled with the location.

"It's far from the cafeteria and P.E. and band," he said.

Aaron Do, also in the seventh grade, really likes the "smart boards" in the classrooms, which work as a combination white board and computer screen. He also likes the mobility of the desks and chairs.

His only complaint is the texture of the walls. "It's a little bit more bumpy," he said. "You can't really lean against them."

Reach James Gonser at 535-2431 or jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com. Reach Treena Shapiro at 525-8014 or tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.