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High School Subdivision

Posted by: Nate Berg

8 March 2007 - 5:00am

Growing school districts in Minnesota look at ways of subdiving new large high schools to give students that "small school" feeling.

"But as south-metro school districts get larger and keep building, many are looking to establish smaller communities within high schools to help students feel their school isn't quite so enormous."

"Farmington's new high school, to be completed in 2009 or 2010, is designed around four 500-student wings, in which students could stay together for much of their high school years, helping teachers know them better and helping students feel more at home."

"'It's like four mini high schools,' said Troy Miller of DLR Group, the architecture firm that designed the school. 'What makes small schools appealing and successful is that you walk in the door and the teachers immediately know you 'cause they see you on the street, they know your parents. ... You go to a big school, and that whole social fabric is now disconnected. The goal of the 'school within a school' is to kind of reaffirm and reweave that fabric a little bit so that there's a safety net.'"

Full Story: Growing districts try to build big with small feel
Source: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune, February 27, 2007
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I argue that the vocabulary of planning and the concepts necessary to participate in local government and planning issues need to be taught to students in K-12.
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