After attending the RB HS open house yesterday, I want to report that the school looks very good after all the upgrade construction work that was put in. From my viewpoint, it looks like the community received good value from the money we put in. My wife and I thought it seemed like a new school. It seemed sort of like how I bet schools that are comparable academically, maybe LT and the like, would look, and what we would expect from our community.
The new main opening, in the back towards the parking lot, which might take a little getting used to, is an open atrium design with tall walls of outside face brick appearing on entry. This open-ness seemed welcoming. I liked the red brick for that 'solid school' look.
This entry area led to hallways that were much brighter and cleaner, and seemed wider and taller with more elbow room to move, than before. There seemed to be better ways connecting the different ends of the school than before, too. The new field house looked very roomy and functional - and better looking inside than from the outside along 1st av. I heard in some of the lead-up that it was smaller than was originally planned, I think. The pool looked very good, big and with the ability to be made into two pools with some kind of removable separator dam in the middle. It seemed state of the art. Also, seemed nice, new and clean. The one science room I was in, a physics classroom, was well appointed with lab equipment integrated in the classroom. The science teacher for my son was one I had not heard of before, but he seemed very eager and fired up to teach physics " 'cause it is all around us". I learned that he was a stanford graduate who got tired of the Office grind of Motorola. kudos to whoever 'gobbled this guy' up. The AP US teacher was quite happy with the changes and gushed about the extra 3 feet of space he now has.
This leads me to share my observations about the teachers. The mix that I saw from my junior son's schedule seemed excited and full of the spirit for teaching our kids. Whether it was perceptual in conjunction with the new surroundings, I don't know, but there seemed to be even more excitement than what I saw in years past.
Maybe the infrastructure upgrades, the elbow room, and the sprucing up helped their spirit, too. This does dovetail with an experience I had with my daughter last week helping improve Wendall Philips High School on the southside that the chicago white sox and the Chicago Cares org sponsored (yeah, go sox). About 300 to 400 or so volunteers fixed up, painted, landscaped - including putting in a new ball field-, and the like. We were told in the intro that studies showed that nicer physical surroundings make for a better academic performance. The students that I saw that day certainly seemed to like it.