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Proposal Name: Montessori School of Raleigh High School

Brought by: Jace Larsen

Sponsored by: Julie Ruble, Nick Smith, Linda Flippo, Rose Barnett, Mike Szott, Subhash Patel

Date of Creation: 10/4/14

We bring a proposal to: build a sustainable high school that helps young adults lead authentic and fulfilling lives.

Background:

The Montessori School of Raleigh is 40 years oldand the middle school is 25 years old. The Montessori method was founded by a woman name Maria Montessori. She believed in following the child and not the teacher ordering the child to do it one way. In the middle school, there are currently 12 7th years, 18 8th years and 8 9th years. The MSR middle school covers many acres of land, most of it woods. This provides us options of possible locations of the high school. This high school will be sustainable meaning the building can operate using very little energy. The proposal is to show the reasons for a high school. I am proposing this idea to give students the full Montessori experience.

Mission Statement:

The Montessori School of Raleigh is the Triangle’s modern embodiment and mindful practice of the time-proven Montessori philosophy, developing agile thinkers, poised communicators, and gracious collaborators—engineers of authentic and fulfilling lives.

How This Proposal Fulfills the Mission:

We must make a high school that follows the Montessori philosophy. The Montessori High School should include the following:

• a room for students to work. It would be a private room with a closing door and big windows so the kids can have privacy but still be supervised. The mission statement expressed the term “gracious collaborators,” so the high school would require peers to work together to more apply the Montessori Mission Statement.

• a projector and podium in each classroom to help boost student’s confidence in presenting. The Montessori School of Raleigh would emphasize oral presentation skills. The Montessori Mission Statement says, “poised communicators.” Emphasizing oral presentation skills include talking in front of the class and can become as advanced as a Speech and Debate team. The student must have the ability to talk confidently and interest the audience.

• a writing room where students can work individually so that they can concentrate on their writing. This classroom could include study carrels to help the students become more focused of their work.

Proposal:

We need a modern-looking building that provides all the necessary facilities for a high school. One of the qualities that will make the high school look more modern are the large windows. Large windows would allow sunlight to help illuminate the school. Many studies have shown that the brightness of a classroom has a positive effect on the students learning. The high school will have of a study lounge. This lounge will be used for student collaborations and free time. The study lounge will include couches, tables, lamps and a fireplace to set a better mood for concentration and studying. Physical fitness is an important factor to help these young adults grow. My high school will include a multi-purpose gym for P.E. classes, basketball games, volleyball games, and guest speakers. The Montessori School of Raleigh High School will offer advanced courses in chemistry and biology so the building will consist of science/chemistry labs because these advanced courses will require professional materials. The students attending this high school will range from about 15-19 years old so the high school will have to include parking lots because students will be driving themselves to and from school.

Potential high schoolers include everyone attending MSR. If we build a high school, more people will attend the middle school and therefore more people will stay for 9th grade. Other potential users include kids from other Montessori schools. Because there is only one other Montessori high school in the state, if we build a high school, kids coming out of middle school from other Montessori schools will come to our high school to finish their Montessori education.

We must time the construction of our school to be opening at around the beginning of the year. If the school finishes construction at around November, the school will have to wait until next year to enroll students. I would project the opening of Montessori High School of Raleigh to be the school year of 2017-2018. We have a budget of $7.5 million so I predict it will take some time to raise that much money

Environmental Stewardship:

This building must be sustainable and not consume too much energy on a daily basis. There are many ways to make a building sustainable that we could apply to the high school. Solar panels help harness energy from the sun and reduce the amount of fossil fuels burning to provide power. Large windows and LED lights help light up the classrooms. Large windows help use the sunlight to light up the classroom meaning using less electric lighting. LED lights will also light up the classroom but the LED lights are more expensive than conventional lights but LED lights cost less to power and are brighter. Rain barrels are a great source of water for toilets and water. Because the school is using natural water resources, it will reduce the amount of water we need from the city.

North Carolina has a wide range of temperatures so the high school will have a good source of sunlight for the solar panels and plenty of rainfall to use as a water source for our rain barrels. The high school will be located near a lake meaning we can use that water as another water source along with the rainfall.   

Process Review: 

We have had guest speaker Mr. Ammons talk to us about the planning of the high school and what to expect. Mr. Ammons was resourceful because he had planned buildings before and had a few ideas of where to place the high school. The 9th grade class has toured many LEED buildings such as a private home and Cherokee Industries to find options of how to become more sustainable. We also toured  Lakewood Montessori which was larger than our UE campus and was gold LEED certified. We visited Carolina Friends School because it was a newly built school with modern looks.

Suggested Board Motions:

I would like to make a motion to construct a high school to fully complete the Montessori learning process.

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