Sunday, June 6, 2010

Repurposing School

Rexford School, Rexford, Kansas

On my way to Colorado with my church youth group we stopped in Rexford, Kansas for the night. I noticed the school building as soon as we came into town since it is the second biggest building around next to the grain elevator. Since Rexford is so far away from other towns and is not very big I asked a local about the school.

This building and the gym next to it house the 6th through 12th grade for Rexford and another town that is ten miles away. The other town's school houses K through 5th grade. This was an innovative way for both communities to keep a school in their town in the 1960's when so many small schools were consolidated (including the schools in my district.) While neither community were able to keep their own schools intact, they came up with a solution they could live with, they repurposed their schools.

Again we are going through tough economic times where schools are being closed and innovative ideas will need to come out and schools will need to be repurposed again. Will technology give us some of the answers schools need to survive (if not thrive?) Is this the opportunity for more online classes to be integrated into a school's curriculum?