A High School Visioning Summit was held on Sept 8, 2007 at Sandy High School with John Weekes, the principal architect from Dull Olson Weekes Architects (DOWA). Sponsored by the Oregon Trail School District, the forum offered an opportunity for all citizens to provide input for the creation of a vision to guide the development of plans for a new high school.

The meeting kicked off with introductions from John Bromley, chairman of the School Board, and Shelley Redinger, the new superintendent. Our own Kurt McKnight, representing the Facilities Task Force, then brought everyone up to speed on why we need a new high school. John Weekes then facilitated the rest of the meeting. Mr. Weekes showed examples of trends in education and asked us to try to imagine how our school would be used not only now, but 50 years in the future. He referred to Winston Churchill who said "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us."

There were several themes that he wanted us to explore that involve the relationship between building design and teaching and learning. He noted that the word curriculum is being replaced by Teaching and Learning. Older architectural styles were focused on teaching (curriculum) with little emphasis on learning. Evolving trends are focused on learning environments - space where students can work collectively with other students and faculty, space for individual study with appropriate oversight and even space for faculty members to collaborate.

After opening us up to the possibilities, he had us brainstorm two areas. First, what are the key qualities and values that we associate with Sandy High School. The audience was broken up into several teams and the responses were all collected and reported on. While answers were diverse, there was a clear consensus regarding pride in our students and recognition that the staff does the best they can with what they have.

After a lunch tour of the school led by a few volunteer students, we next tackled the wish list of concepts, ideas or values that we would like to see in our new school. Later, these were prioritized and resulted in some commonality. We clearly would like a school that encourages learning and that would be more collegiate in its look and feel. Insuring safety of our students is a top priority. Involving or partnering with the community so that the school would become the hub of not only Sandy but of the entire district is very important. The school must fit into our environment and culture - practical, eco-sensitive and something that we can all be proud of.

Mr. Weekes will take this information and formulate a set of values or mission statements that the building will ultimately be designed around. But this is only the beginning of public input to the design. He stated repeatedly that he does not have a pre-conceived design in mind and that what comes out of this meeting and the meetings to come will ultimately form the basis of the new school.