Sullivan facilities modifications, New Tech school agreement approved by BUSD board

A pair of 5-0 Bonsall Unified School District votes Aug. 8 approved an implementation agreement with New Technology Network, LLC, for the new high school and progressed modifications to Sullivan Middle School to accommodate the new high school as well as future middle school growth.

The district approved a four-year agreement with the New Technology Network for $497,000. Students at a New Technology Network school interact with local industry and serve internships, allowing those students to develop a network in their desired career fields.

The New Tech curriculum also utilizes interdisciplinary fields, for example the combination of biology and physical education studies for biophysics, and concurrent enrollment with a community college allows students to earn early college credit. Schools where students interact with industry also have reduced truancy and other behavioral problems compared to traditional high school campuses. The New Technology Network is a model, and the agreement allows for local adaptability.

New Technology Network, LLC, will work directly with teachers and administrators to provide the necessary knowledge and skills. The services include a one-week in-depth training session for administrators and teachers, an annual conference for all schools in the network, and on-site and virtual planning support.

The Bonsall district will also gain access to the New Technology Network’s proprietary Echo Web-based learning management system. Echo is designed to facilitate project-based learning and create a network to connect students, teachers, and parents. The Echo components include curriculum and grade book tools designed for project-based learning, calendars, group interaction tools, resource sharing, social functionality, reporting tools, and a project library.

“There’s a lot of collaborative work that’s part of the model,” said BUSD superintendent Justin Cunningham.

The up-front 2013-14 expenditures of the agreement consist of $37,000 for planning and start-up support and $112,000 for implementation. The new Bonsall high school will have ninth graders only when it opens in 2014-15 and will expand by one grade each year through 2017-18. The annual costs for the next three years will be $119,400, $119,800, and $110,100.

Bonsall faculty members will be trained in the New Tech model, including eighth-grade teachers. “We’ll be moving the model down as well as up,” Cunningham said. “It will also be a New Tech middle school.”

The high school will initially be on the Sullivan Middle School campus. “We went into looking at high school designs from the perspective of how we will start the ninth grade,” Cunningham said.

BUSD staff sought an appropriate portion of Sullivan for the high school grades. “It appeared to be over on the west side of the campus,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham expects that the high school will eventually be relocated to another campus. “We don’t intend for the high school to remain there,” he said.

The modifications to the Sullivan campus will include New Technology Network needs as well as the addition of high school classes and the future addition of middle school capacity.

“When you look at the New Tech model a lot of it is integrating curriculum,” Cunningham said. “In that model at each grade level we’ll need a large classroom that can hold 50 kids.”

The classrooms for interdisciplinary studies would also accommodate two teachers.

“What we have to do is change some of the classroom configurations,” Cunningham said.

“The furniture will have to be a lot different,” Cunningham said. “The idea of kids sitting in rooms facing the teacher is pretty much out the window to a large degree.”

The changes to Sullivan Middle School will require an architectural consultant as well as the construction itself. The BUSD board did not approve a consultant contract itself but provided direction to continue work. Review by the state Department of School Architecture will be required and will be a three- to six-month process depending on the extent of the modifications.