Making seviers space work
John Sevier Middle’s building is not very large. With 800 students and over 50 teachers, the school is starting to experience a lack of rooms for classes and offices. This could become a major problem in the near future.
Melissa Seaver is an assistant principal at Sevier. She shares many students’ concerns about the size of the building.
“The original plan of KCS was to move Sevier to a larger school building,” she said. “Since that is not happening anymore, the biggest challenge is determining what spaces are needed and how we can repurpose them to fit our needs.”
Repurposing space has been a major theme for Sevier this school year. Part of the front office, for example, was sectioned off to create a new office for the student resource officer. A back room in the library had to be emptied of resources to provide additional space. Part of the newsroom that serves Sevier’s journalism program was also converted to office space.
There are also a lot of new teacher positions this school year, including an 8th grade Career Counselor, a SPED Coordinator, and a new related arts position.
“We added a new related arts class that is taught by Mr. Weaver and the MAP special education program was added,” she said. “Furthermore, we needed to find a space for our English as a Second Language teacher.”
These teachers, too, needed space. Although the school is not overpopulated with its number of students, the number of rooms available is making expanding the offerings at Sevier difficult.
There also appears to be a space issue in the cafeteria. Recently, administrators had to move some people in 8th grade’s first lunch to 8th grade’s second lunch.
While there is a place to sit outside, most of the time teachers do not let students sit outside due to them throwing food or otherwise getting into trouble. The atrium can no longer be used during lunch time, either.
A new SRO office was built in the front office over the break, too.
“With the SRO’s new office in our front office location, it is easier for the SRO to prevent and respond to school-based situations from a central location,” Seaver said. “The front office is often our busiest location and is located near the main entrance to the school.”
Since Sevier is not moving to a new building, the school system also invested money into the gyms. Both have received major renovations to their floors.
“Both floors hadn’t been refinished in over 40 years,” Seaver said. “It has been a long process, but we are very happy with the updated look in both gyms.”
Space will likely continue to be an issue and limit any additions to Sevier’s faculty or course offerings.
“We are utilizing more space this year than we have ever before,” she said. “We have turned closets into offices, moved a classroom into the library, and repurposed spaces for storage. I foresee more space will always be needed, but we will do the best we can with the space we have.”