By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff Writer
The entrance to Baranof Elementary School is getting a makeover — by Sitka High School students.
A class of six SHS seniors worked with Caitlin Woolsey, SHS Class of 2010, and landscape architect Monique Anderson to create a new, more welcoming area around the entrance to the school, which houses kindergarten and first-grade pupils.
The students created plans and concepts for the space, which they presented to Baranof Principal Jill Lecrone at the end of the Sitka High fall semester.
“Jill was really impressed with the whole thing,” Woolsey said. “She really liked the idea of it being an open and welcoming space, but also the idea of it being an enclosure, so that if parents were waiting with their small children, there might be a small bench between the waiting area and the road, so that the toddler wouldn’t be wandering out into the road.”
The project still has a ways to go, but Woolsey said the class — which concluded earlier this month — was a success.
“It was really cool to see how meaningful it was (for students) to devote time to one real-life project, and to see it through to this phase of the process,” Woolsey said in an interview.
Members of the Sitka High School architectural design class pose with landscape architect Monique Anderson outside the front entrance of Baranof Elementary School. The students worked a redesign for the entryway space to accompany a new sign to be built by Mike Vieira’s Design and Fabrication students. From left are Allen Madigan, Reyana Lindstrom (back), Katie Sweeney (front), Morgan Feldpausch, Jocelyn Brady and Anderson. (Photo by Caitlin Woolsey)
The class is the result of a conglomerate of grants and programs, including the Arts Culture Technology Peer Mentorship program — part of the Arts Culture and Technology Integrated Teaching Initiative — and the New Visions grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The project traces its origins to the acquisition of a CNC (computer numerical control) plasma cutter by the Sitka High fabrication lab.
The machine, which was purchased with a $10,000 BP grant, can custom-cut metal, making it easy to create objects such as signs.
“As we got the machine this fall, we tried to focus in on some projects we could do to show it off and promote the grant that provided it for us,” said Mike Vieira, Sitka High career and technical education instructor.
Since Vieira’s daughter goes to Baranof Elementary School, Vieira decided to start there.
“I’m fairly connected to that building,” he said. “I talked with Jill and we decided to try to design a new sign for that entrance.”
But Woolsey said the class, itself, was not too focused on the sign. Instead, they were reworking the land area close to the entrance.
“Right now there’s some rocks and trees and the old sign that Ava Parrish designed (when she was in first grade),” Woolsey said. “It’s not super clear that that’s the front entrance, and Jill would like some outdoor waiting space – some usable area.”
Student ideas for the new area include planters and interesting designs for benches and garbage cans, but some said that this wasn’t their first instinct when redesigning the space.
Students said that, initially, they overlooked many important components of the site.
“It seems kind of easy yet challenging at the same time,” said Morgan Feldpausch, one of the students. “You don’t think about all the possible outliers in the situation, like you might forget all the views that are around you – the mural that’s across the street, or the view of the harbor when you look past the cars.”
Fellow student Gracelyn Koenig agreed: “Getting down to the logistics of it is really complicated, and there’s a lot of things you have to consider,” she said. “It made me realize that (landscape architecture) takes a lot of people and time and opinions.”
But Woolsey said she was impressed by the students’ work.
“This class was really focused on revision,” she said. “In a lot of classes, you have a different project every week. In this class, we had one project, and every step of the way we were looking at the work we created and improving.”
Even after all this work, the School Board’s request to the Sitka Tribe of Alaska to change the name of Baranof Elementary could influence the space last semester’s students proposed.
“I think especially the art that’s included in the site – as well as the benches – would want to be in response (to the school’s new name),” Woolsey said.
Vieira is thinking about the name change as he continues to work on the new sign, too.
“We’ve been very careful to make sure that the sign will be made in at least two parts, where you can bolt on a name and bolt off a name,” he said. “It may happen before we produce the sign, but either way, we want to be ready for that.”
