Amenties, security highlight East Ridge Elementary’s capabilities
The exterior of the new East Ridge Elementary School is shown on Wednesday, July 28, 2021.
A hand sanitizing station waits at the front of East Ridge Elementary School on Wednesday, July 28, 2021.
Classroom cubbies at East Ridge Elementary School are shown on Wednesday, July 28, 2021.
The under-construction lot, which will become the recess area at East Ridge Elementary School is shown on Wednesday, July 28, 2021.
OGDEN — Waking through the halls of the new East Ridge Elementary School, Principal Meridee Harrison is giddy with what this building could mean for students. The school replaces Horace Mann Elementary, another source of emotion for the current principal and former student at Horace Mann.
“Now to have the opportunity to come back and give back to the community that I grew up in, and to see the opportunities this building provides for where I grew up and these kids is amazing,” she said. “The flexible space, the technology, the safety is more than I would ever dream that we could give our kids.”
The design of East Ridge was purposeful in giving the most flexibility possible to teachers and students. Right beyond the entrance and front office is the school’s atrium, adorned with four television screens combined into one, presentation seating for students and a mural designed off the view from Ben Lomond Mountain overlooking the valley. The central point of the building, it branches into multiple floors, hallways and class pods.
Every grade level in the school, from the preschoolers to sixth graders, will have their own distinct pod. In addition to the classrooms, the pods each boast a teacher workroom and “think tank” for students to work collaboratively and with outside instructors. Harrison mentioned it would allow speech pathologists and staff assistants to work with the students in their part of the building.
The preschool will be one of two in the district not run by an outside group, joining New Bridge Elementary. While all the other pods follow similar designs, the preschool is slightly different. Preschool classes will be capped at 20 pupils per section, with four sections available — two classes Monday through Thursday with a.m./p.m. half-days. Harrison is also preparing for approximately 25-30 pupils per kindergarten class.
Preschool classrooms come equipped with their own bathrooms and drinking fountains along with the amenities found in all classrooms — dry erase walls and a television to be used for instruction.
The dry erase walls in particular were a boon for the school. According to Jer Bates, director of communications for Ogden School District, the materials were last in stock from the manufacturers amid ongoing material shortages due to the pandemic.
The older students have their class pods on the second floor along with the open-floor-plan library off the main atrium. The library was designed with the expectation that students and teachers could use the space in their own ways.
“We can move, we can change spaces. That’s something before we were very limited on; everything was enclosed,” Harrison said. “(Now) everything’s glass. You’re open, you can see, which really turns every space into a learning space.”
Also on the second floor is the science lab designed for enhanced STEM learning. With white flooring made to clean up possible spills, it has what Harrison described as a “high school feel.”
The hope is also to partner with members of the community for virtual field trips held in the lab. Bates added that after the COVID-19 closures, it’s shown that many of these experiences can be shared virtually.
One of the main goals in construction was for the building to be safe and secure for everyone.
Entrance into the school will now be run through the front office. People entering the building will have to be approved to enter by office staff who will press a buzzer to unlock the door. The intercom/buzzer will also take a picture of the person.
In the event of a fire, and in the regular fire drills, doors to each pod close and lock from the inside with automated messages built to inform everyone in the building of the situation. Classrooms come equipped with panic buttons inside which would alert the front office in case of an emergency and key cards could be used to lock down the school from each pod and the front office. The alarms will automatically notify first responders.
There is additional security in the preschool classroom doors as opposed to other rooms. When the crash bar — the horizontal mechanism found on most commercial doors — is opened, an alarm notifies the teacher so students can’t wander out unnoticed, Harrison said.
The school’s resource room has the same security measures as the preschool classrooms allowing for privacy to perform IEPs and other activities. There’s also a host of resources for students with additional needs in the functional skills room next door to aid in sensory adaptation and learning of life skills, according to Harrison.
The school’s playgrounds and field are under construction and will be ready for the start of the school year. East Ridge also has a state-of-the-art industrial kitchen for the students on one end of the multi-purpose room, which also functions as the gymnasium and has an auditorium stage. In the combined art/music space, the school will have a 3-D printer. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at East Ridge at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 12. The event is open to the public.
Dual Language
East Ridge will be the new home of the area’s Dual Language Immersion elementary program. Formerly housed at Bonneville and T.O. Smith elementary schools, students will be bused in from those communities to continue the program, according to Harrison. Students doing DLI will then progress through Highland Junior High School and Ben Lomond High School.
The move will consolidate all DLI students in one location with the expansion of the International Baccalaureate program that will be offered at T.O. Smith, according to Bates.
Costs
The construction of the school was funded through an $87 million bond proposal approved by Weber County voters in November 2018. In 2018, then-Superintendent Rich Nye told the Standard-Examiner in a statement, “It is the obligation of the Ogden School District to provide safe and secure facilities that are conducive to maximizing the teaching and learning process.”
The project ended up costing just over $28.2 million overall, according to Bates. He added that the construction costs totaled about $25.25 million with around $3 million more in soft costs — namely architectural fees, furniture, a soil survey and more. The district saved $85,000 by repurposing a boiler and additional materials from Horace Mann.