Rhode Island School for the Deaf
One Corliss Park
Providence, Rhode Island
09208
Building Committee Meeting
August 30th 2007
Present: Todd Murano, Arn Lisnoff, Kelly Butterworth, Goerge Balsley,Christopher
Armstrong, Steve Hughes, Judy Plume, Natalie Soucy, Meme meadows, Ernest Okwara,
Dinaz Adenwalla, Jonathan Seamans, Lori Dunsmore, Mary Jane Johnson, Meg Denton,
Manny Rodriquez, Kristin Gilmore
Interpreters: Rose
Jon Henry
Minutes: Meg Denton
I. Welcome: The Building Committee would like to welcome Lori Dunsmore.
Introductions
II. Approval of Minutes: June 19th, July 17th and July 31st. Mary Jane made the motion
to approval all minutes and Jonathan seconded the motion. June 19th, July 17th and July
31st minutes were approval as written.
III. Updates: Arn Lisnoff
RE: Security report need electronic version to amend the minutes. Copies should be
posted, one in front room, one in Library and one in Jonathan’s office. Staff should be
encouraged to read the report. It is not long and is easy to read.
Thank you to Jonathan for his hard work making things happen without much money.
Security: The following 3 steps need to happen in order for a new building in the site to
be successful.
Step one: Getting site visible from neighborhood, getting it cleaned up, lit up and painted
so it is more visible. Jonathan reported that the numerous shrubs and trees are gone and
or trimmed to allow more visibility and less access to the school roof. This will be
completed by Tuesday. The stripes in the parking lot will be repainted in order to
demonstrate current building occupancy. 24 windows fixed this summer.
Step two: Video monitoring, lighting that is strategic in its location. We need to work
better and smarter with the community at large so that we are not isolated. We need
shared pride in the building. Jonathan reported that all of the outside lights on the
building will be fixed in the next couple of weeks. Jonathan reported that we are getting
bids for security patrols for weekend nights.
Independence House next door is an example that a building in this neighborhood can
exist without graffiti and damage. We should form a relationship with these folks. They
are in very good shape and are part of the neighborhood. We should also meet with the
Providence Parks Department and Independence House as well as any members of the
neighbor to discuss cleaning up the park. Arn suggested getting Americorp or City Year
involved with the development of a community cleanup as it is a very big job.
Security consultant says that the people that have been hitting the building are amateurs.
Step three: What do we do as far a policies and procedures. This is time consuming but
not difficult. Jonathan reported that we will have 0 tolerance of vandalism.
-Playgrounds will be patrolled for litter and graffiti will be painted over by the end of the
next business day. .
-Internally: Buses will be dropped off in front. No one will come in any other door. Any
visitor will get a pass. No propping doors open anymore. Front door is functional now.
No one will be allowed in after 8:30 am
“Man trap” may be created within front doors to initially let people in but they will be
kept in this “man trap” until they have been identified and purpose stated.
-Need to make sure that students can be accounted for during emergencies. Two lock
down drills and two evacuation drills are required out of 15 drills. Policy committee is
working on emergency policies. All doors can be exited but not entered without a key.
-Letter home to parents about updates in security and about a community cleanup. Letter
to come from Lori and Jonathan.
Arn: Hidden hero Jim Carlson suggested a security consultant a long time ago. Jonathan
thanked Chris and Steven for their support with cleaning up the building.
-Flag pole is gone!
Funding and Site: Arn Lisnoff
House fiscal Advisor is scrutinizing money and site. Arn stated that they are answering a
lot of questions. We should get The House Fiscal Advisory Committee’s rubber stamp or
approval for future support.
Marc Gurskey wrote and small article that was published in the paper.
May need to continue lobbying for funds
IV. School Design
George Balsley talked the goals in planning the design for Rhode Island School for the
Deaf.
Things we voted on in July were added to the design
Universal design that is accessible to all
Copies of the design will be distributed via the web or via hard copy.
Main Circulation:
-Circulation spine or “Main Street” ties everything together. Library is the central
unifying feature of the building.
-Gym will be about 8 feet lower than rest of building. We will have a large scale ramp to
get from one area to the other. There will also be stairs and an elevator.
-Cafeteria is positioned at the front of the building to provide life to the building. Front
will be glass.
-Staff will have a card swipe to enter building.
-Audiology can be ushered through admin to go directly to audiology to avoid having
audiology public into the main parts of the building.
-Outreach and transition can use the building after hours without difficulty. Public/private
break is clear.
-Any offices that are on the outside wall will have access to views outside.
-Other entrance is preschool/ family guidlance. This will have “man trap” as well but will
only use the door for scheduled appointments.
-Kindergarten has door out to playground. Not an entrance
We are currently exceeding 73,000 square feet for the school with everything accounted
for. That’s a lot of square footage and a lot of money at $300 a square foot. Need to
modify and adjust.
Target for fundraising the excess space would be about $1.3 million.
Middle and High School
Middle and High Schools are going to share a resource room, toilets and storage rooms
Each classroom will have natural light
Offices off of the “main street” will steal light from the hallway.
Hallways will be generally bigger, with natural light
Community spaces are in the center of the “Pods”. They are wrapped by the classrooms.
Community spaces will be perceived as a “suite” for code purposes
Upper and Lower Elementary
Tried wrapping the classrooms around the common areas but that increase the square
footage too much
If LE and UE shared the community space that would save a lot of square footage
All classrooms have access to the common space, sight lines from both schools
One set of toilets to be shared
One coordinators office
Teacher’s resource rooms are shared
Kitchen will be shared with the FG program and will have access from their “Pod”.
This design is still 700 square feet over
Shared conference room with be available for UE, LE, preschool and FG
Coordinators offices will have space to have a small meeting
Other conference rooms will be in Admin., transition classroom and library. They will be
plenty of spaces in the building to have meetings.
Copy rooms need to be in their own space because they are dirty and big pollutants.
Discussions around the toilets in the LE and UE and will be brought to the table and
discussed further at RGB
Classroom modules
Scheme A,B, C and D were shown with permanent cabinets in one place
Furniture can be in different configurations but not cabinets
High School and middle school schemes are different from Lower Schools. Lower school
has more ability to have small groupings.
Homework for Staff: Use cutouts to play around with furniture design.
Consensus needed within each grade grouping about furniture kits.
Any comments about the project need to be made by next week
Is the furniture meeting the needs for the main teaching areas?
What are the desired furniture elements for each level? Each level needs to have
continuity.
Sink placement?
Bulletin boards?
Between now and the 17th of October is when we have a lot of decisions to make. Need to
talk about this during departmental meetings on Tuesday, September 4th. Comments need
to be sent to RGB by end of next week.
Next Building Committee Meeting: Monday September 11th 3”30 to 5:00.
1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month for the future.
Meeting adjourned 12:00 noon
Respectfully submitted,
Meg Denton