What happens when kids help design own school?
Klein ISD dedicates Fox Elementary School that even includes a playground slide in the library as a reward for good readers
When asked to design the library for their new school, Fox Elementary students put a slide — yes, a playground slide — right smack dab in the middle of the library.
The room’s design is one of the many innovative ideas implemented by students who took part in designing their new school in Klein ISD.
The “reward” slide is for students to enjoy who have completed books, projects and earned a trip down the slide at Fox.
The task for Lakita Combs, principal of the new school, was more than having a slide installed. It was finding a librarian with earplugs.
“Yes! It took me a long time to find the perfect librarian,” she said with a laugh.
But the principal said it works for them and they couldn’t be more excited.
“The design of Fox Elementary was first conceptualized by a group of Klein ISD students, administrators and architects during multiple workshops designed to gain insight into how a building can efficiently serve and enrich the learner experience,” Combs said.
The process began in 2018 when students were selected by administrators from various campuses.
A group of principals brainstormed and wanted to know what would innovation look like on a campus, she said. So they turned to the experts on the subject—kids. Students were selected from high school, middle school and elementary campuses to participate in the discussions.
They met with the architects and district leaders to design their own school.
When finished, Fox became the 33rd elementary in the district.
The $24 million school has approximately 119,000 square feet of learning space.
The gymnasium is part of the main building, another interesting feature, and the cafeteria and auditorium are combined in a modern space.
Fox will house about 850 students with 92 faculty members.
IBI architects designed the school with input from students and staff, and Gamma Construction Company earned the bid to build the dream school.
While the school was finished with construction on March 20 of last year, the doors remained closed while the world worked its way through the coronavirus pandemic.
Administrators were hopeful the school would open along with the rest of the district’s schools on Aug. 10, 2020, but because of COVID-19 concerns, the start of school was pushed back a month and Fox opened on Sept. 8 to the newly zoned students.
Throughout the campus, students’ footprint and input can be visible.
Not only does the library have a slide, it’s connected to a green room studio and makerspace lab.
Students didn’t want the science labs in separate rooms, so they are designed in the middle of each grade level den area.
There’s also a courtyard for outside classroom learning.
“We have a rainbow wall, benches for sitting, metrics on the ground with inches and feet for measuring, and a garden out there for kids to grow things,” Combs said.
The courtyard, designed in the middle of the school, is visible to many of the classrooms.
In most schools, grades are separated from each other, but at Fox, for example, third and fourth grade are in the same hallway. Other grades are paired similarly to allow students excelling in a lower grade to receive additional instruction from a higher grade if they choose.
All of it is built around the Klein ISD Shared Vision mantra, “Students enter with a promise and exit with a purpose.”
Parents, faculty, staff, administrators and family members celebrated the new project late last month.
Proclamations were issued by U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Harris County Commissioner Jack Cagle’s offices.
“Thanks to our greater community’s overwhelming support for the 2015 bond, we were able to build this remarkable school for our students to thrive,” said Klein ISD Superintendent Jenny McGown.
Fox Elementary is named for the family and descendants of August Fuchs. Fuchs pioneered much of the development of northwest Harris County.
“We changed the spelling of the German name Fuchs (to) prevent any unfortunate mispronunciations,” said Steven Baird, director of the Klein Historical Foundation. With the permission from the family, “we use the phonetic spelling of Fox instead.”