PROFILE:
Kingsley Elementary School is in the DeKalb School District located in Dunwoody, GA. Current
enrollment is 587 students in grades K-5. Teacher ratio is 15.3 to 1. The school is approximately 47%
Hispanic, 41% White, 12% Black/Other. Free and reduced lunch students number 42%. Kingsley
Elementary offers students from diverse backgrounds, cultures and countries the ability to learn and
grow together in a unique caring and nurturing environment.
STATEMENT OF NEED:
Kingsley Elementary is a 44-year old building and classrooms are showing decades of wear and tear. The
school is deficient in the areas of furniture, storage space, work space, and simple modern facilities a
new school has. Students would be more actively engaged in the learning process if they had a physical
environment that is more conducive to do this. The school’s population is 47% economically challenged
Hispanic youth and if they had a beautiful school to attend it would give them hope to succeed and help
develop a sense of importance and pride in their education.
--AVAILABLE FUNDING: Currently there is none. Teachers are allowed to spend about $300 a year but
this amount does not make a dent in the amount of work that needs to be done in classrooms,
--STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: Upgrading classrooms would provide educators of students with special
needs the tools that are essential to meet requirements of student learning. Students with visual,
auditory, and fine motor skill deficiencies are given an environment that would enable them to succeed
at a higher rate.
--ESOL STUDENTS: As many of the students of this school come from economically challenged homes,
the classroom becomes a special place for many of them. With classrooms in disrepair with old, broken
and mismatched furniture, equipment that does not work and lack of space, the children are not given a
chance to show pride in their education. If they had a nice, modern classroom many of these children
would find they enjoy being in school more than any other place. Attendance, effort, enthusiasm and
achievement would rise.
--LEVERAGING EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: Increasing exposure to emerging technologies that will
prepare students for real world working environments beyond the walls of school would be one of many
outcomes if the students had a modern classroom environment featuring white boards, laptops and
ipads. The “Super Math Lab” classroom will assist educators in promoting research skills, applications to
real life problems and increase higher level thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
--EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY: Students would be able to revisit concepts independently inside the
classroom. Teachers will be able to remediate lessons without reproducing instructional materials,
allowing them to maximize the use of instructional time versus dedicating resources to time consuming
minutia and clerical work.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
GOAL:
The goal is to remodel a current fifth grade classroom from top to bottom, converting the classroom
from a dilapidated, outdated classroom to a “Super Math Lab” featuring white board areas on all four
walls for student use, a computer station with laptops or ipads, updated walls to display student work,
show projects, and to create a room designed to make every child excited to learn math. Physical
properties of the room would include more storage and space saving furniture to accommodate the
large class sizes in the district, while still giving students a comfortable place to work and grow.
OBJECTIVES:
--Actively engage students in the learning process and promote student participation while supporting
the Georgia Performance/Core Standards.
--Increase student test scores on the GEORGIA MILESTONES, ITBS and STAR READING AND MATH
assessments. Current trends of scores will be monitored and data collected via checkpoints and
benchmarks to monitor progress in math.
--Prepare students for a technologically advanced world through the use of real world problem solving
environments and applications.
--Instill in students a sense of pride, importance and excitement in the area of mathematics, as well as
their entire education in general.
PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION AND CONCEPT:
DESCRIPTION:
The fifth grade classroom is to be completely stripped and gutted. The walls will then be covered with
white boards halfway up on all sides allowing many children to be computing and calculating at the
same time. The top half of the walls will be covered with modern vinyl bulletin board material to allow
the display of student work and projects as well as displaying math concepts and ideas. There will be a
computer station in the room featuring laptops, the teacher desk will be space-saving and minimal to
allow more room for the room to have kidney-shaped tables as opposed to desks. This will allow the
teacher to move from small group to small group easily. The current coat area will be converted to
independent student storage spaces for books and backpacks. The floor will be carpeted and will
feature math-type flooring to add to the overall “math emersion”. Leftover wall space will be painted
with bright colors to further enhance the brightness and positivity of the room.
CONCEPT:
We propose to take education and make it not only interactive, but engaging to the students of Kingsley
Elementary. In recent years, 21st century students have been called “Digital Natives”. The Digital Native
is defined as a person who has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, and
mobile phones. Many of the Kingsley students are denied many of these necessities because of the
home environment they are in. The “Super Math Lab” can help many of these children learn the digital
skills necessary for success in the real world as they grow up. By providing a more modern math
classroom we are bridging the gap for these students.
TIMELINE/ACTION PLAN:
May/June/July 2015: Raise funding for classroom conversion. Funding will need to come quickly to
begin classroom renovation over summer vacation.
July 2015: Renovate classroom to become “Super Math Lab” by end of month to accommodate school
opening in early August.
BUDGET:
(Priced through School Outfitters)
Vinyl Covered Tackboard-4 walls
$450
6 Kidney-shaped student tables
$900
30 Student chairs
$1200
Shelving materials
$160
Space-saver teacher desk
$260
Carpeting remnant
$800
Multiplication/division rug
$140
White board panels-4 walls
$800
Construction material to convert current
coat area to student storage
$500
3 lap tops or ipads
$1200
Student computer station table
$260
Paint
$100
Labor (approximate)
$2000
ESTIMATED TOTAL:
$8770
CURRENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO DATE:
$375
This represents the current teacher’s personal contribution to begin funding.
PROJECT SHORTFALL TO DATE:
$8395