52 FW, DODEA-Europe conduct school-move town halls Published March 23, 2016 By Staff Report 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- The 52nd Fighter Wing leadership and representatives from the Department of Defense Education Activity-Europe held two town halls March 9 and 10 to reassure parents that they have a final plan and allocated funding to bring all students back to Spangdahlem Air Base from the Bitburg Annex. As a flashback to previous town halls, leadership reminded parents that the long-term plan is to construct a modern elementary school on Spangdahlem that will cost approximately $70 million. Construction for the new elementary school is projected to start in 2018 with completion in 2020. The site is still to be determined, but the goal is to provide synergy with the Middle/High school. This plan is different than the proposal last spring, when all elementary students were moved to Bitburg. At that time, leadership intended to renovate and add-on to the existing elementary school. However, when bids came back $6-7 million over budget, the lack of funds sent leaders back to the drawing board to re-evaluate a way to get students back to Spangdahlem as soon as possible. Although funding is now allocated and there is a long-term plan for a new elementary school, leaders don't want to wait four or more years to bring students back to Spangdahlem. Beginning with the 2016/2017 school year, the old elementary school will be reopened, as well as augmented by modular, temporary facilities, so as many children as possible can come back to Spangdahlem when school starts in August. Pre-School Child Development, Sure Start, first grade and third through fifth grades, as well as middle school grades sixth through eighth, will move to Spangdahlem by fall 2016. However, because the elementary school's temporary facilities will not be complete until November, kindergarten and second grade will not come back to Spangdahlem until after the winter break. High School students are projected to come to Spangdahlem at the beginning of the 2017/2018 school year, which will be the final move needed to close all schools at the Bitburg Annex. The temporary facilities for the elementary school include two buildings - a one-story and a two-story. Due to fire codes, kindergarteners and first graders must be located on the first floor of a building. This is the reason kindergarteners are not moving back to Spangdahlem until temporary facilities are ready following winter break. The high school temporary facilities, which include four, two-story buildings, are scheduled for installation behind the middle school in the spring of 2017. Below are some of the questions and answers from the town halls: BUSING/BUSES Q1: Will kindergarteners and second-graders ride with high school students on the bus? A1: Yes, it is DoDEA policy to transport students K-12 on the same bus if they are picked up from and delivered to the same locations. All grade levels currently ride together and have been for years. Q2: How will the bus seating situation work? Will there be monitors on the bus? A2: Children will be seated by school type, (i.e., elementary students sit in front, middle school students sit in the middle and high school students sit in the back). Security monitors will continue to be randomly rotated through the buses for the purpose of anti-terrorism and force protection observations. DoDEA does not provide disciplinary monitors on the buses, but bus drivers will report disciplinary problems. Parents and students are similarly encouraged to report misbehavior to school administration. Q3: Why are kindergarteners - the youngest - being bused farthest from parents? A3: DoDEA regulations and German fire code require that kindergarteners and first-grade students be located on the first floor of a building. The end objective is to get as many children back to Spangdahlem, as quickly as possible while only moving each classroom once. Kindergarten rooms are unique in their design and the temporary facilities were designed specifically for kinder students. Q4: For those who will be bused to Bitburg from Spangdahelm, can we have a new bus stop, preferably separate from traffic? A4: You will remember we moved the bus stop earlier this year for better access and for the safety of our children. We have looked at several options, and will continue to monitor, but the current location is the best location. One thing to remember is that next year you will have a lot less children getting on buses. Q5: How can I get my children to school on time when I don't have a bus stop in my village and I have to take my children to school? I have children at both Spangdahlem and Bitburg, so how can I get them both there on time. A5: There is no easy answer and each situation is different. However, there are two possibilities. First, move to a location that has school bus service. Second, bring all of your students to Spangdahlem. Drop-off students at the Spangdahlem schools, then place the kindergarten, second grade and high school students on buses headed to Bitburg. You may need to utilize the School Age Program either before or after school to help accomplish this. Q6: Will bus rides still be an hour or less? A6: Yes, that is a DoDEA policy and we do our best to keep it under an hour. Q7: Will there be a better way besides e-mail to communicate bus delays? Is texting available? A7: We do our best to communicate bus delays as soon as we receive the information. We are often out monitoring the buses in the morning, and if a bus gets stuck behind an accident we might not find out right away. Unfortunately, sending text messages is not feasible due to the cost. But, we try to e-mail as soon as we know, as well as update the bus hotline. Q8: Some parents seem concerned about kindergarteners riding the bus with high school. As a possible solution, can parents volunteer and be allowed to ride the bus? A8: Volunteers have to go through a detailed background check, screening process, and training per DoDEA regulation. There are also legal constraints associated with volunteers acting in a disciplinary role. Q9: Where will the transportation office be? A9: The transportation office will be located at Spangdahlem. Q10: There are two types of buses - one where all the seats face forward and the other has groups of seats facing each other. It seems that the buses where the seats face each other cause more problems, at least for elementary students. It ends up being a playground and then gets out of control. Can we look at how we assign buses, especially for those who have a lot of elementary students? A10: We have not heard this before; we will definitely pass this along to the transportation office. Q11: If my village previously just had a bus stop with transportation to Bitburg, will it also have transportation to Spangdahlem? A11: Yes, we are still working bus routes, but buses will be provided for both schools. SECURITY Q12: What is security like at Bitburg? A12: The base is secure. Our Security Forces Squadron, which has Airmen positioned there, has an excellent relationship with the Office of Special Investigation and polizei. Random security measures are executed, but we can't tell you what or when they are because that keeps people outside of the gate guessing. Q13: Will the Air Force maintain security of Bitburg while the schools are there, or has the base been given back to Germany already? A13: Yes, the Air Force controls security of Bitburg while the schools remain there. Once all students have been moved to Spangdahlem, then Bitburg will be returned to the host nation. CLASSES/CLASSROOMS Q14: Have you thought about having a pod for siblings, so families that have students at both schools don't have to be separated? A14: We have looked in to this and considered many options. Looking at the numbers it doesn't seem feasible. However, for due diligence, we will look at the feasibility of this again. Q15: How many more kids are we talking about per class size? A15: Class size will essentially remain the same, if not smaller. All of fifth grade will be at Spangdahlem Elementary School. All of sixth grade will be at Spangdahlem Middle School. Q16: Can middle schoolers in seventh and eighth grade have the option to stay at Bitburg? My son enjoys the curriculum, his teachers and sports. A16: Whether it's now or a year from now, we need to make the change. Plus, the services at the middle school should stay the same. They will still have the same classes and extracurricular activities. The seventh- and eighth-grade students will attend Spangdahlem Middle School in School Year 2016/2017. Q17: When the kindergarten and second-graders move from Bitburg to Spandahlem during the middle of the year will they have the same class? A17: Yes, they will have the same teachers and classmates. Q18: Can we have combination classes, where two grades are in one class, so siblings could stay together? A18: Based on the number of students we have, logistically it is not possible. Once again we will look again to ensure we have fully explored every option. But, we also won't take short cuts on the quality of education for our children. Q19: Will the students finish this year as is? Will the last day of school change? A19: Yes, students will finish this year where they are currently located. The last day of school may change for schools impacted by the move. DoDEA hopes to have a revised calendar outlining any changes for the rest of the year within a couple weeks. Q20: If the last day of school changes for the elementary school, will it also change for the middle school or high school? A20: No. Because the middle school and high school students will not be impacted by the move, they will continue with the set calendar. Parents are encouraged to talk with their respective principal(s) if there are circumstances warranting special attention. Q21: Will classrooms for kindergarten and second-grade students be moved during the Christmas break? A21: The plan is to have everything in place so that when kindergarteners and second-graders come back from the winter break they will be in their new classrooms. Time will be allocated so that teachers do not have to use their break to move classes. PROGRAMS & SERVICES Q22: Will there continue to be bus service at Youth Programs for Bitburg? A22: Yes, this bus service will continue. Q23: Will Sure Start be here at Spangdahlem? A23: Yes, Sure Start will be at Spangdahlem. Q24: What services will stay at Bitburg and what will come back to Spangdahlem? A24: Services will be duplicated at both. Both schools will have a cafeteria, library, computers, etc. Q25: For those who have an IEP, will they have access to specialists? A25: Yes, access and services will essentially remain just as they are now. Q26: Right now there is one counselor for the middle and high school, where will that counselor go? A26: The counselor will stay with the high school. Q27: Will there be community classes this year? A27: There will be some community classes, as well as traditional classroom settings. Q28: For these extra days off, is there a plan for child care if both parents work or if one is deployed? A28: For parents who utilize the 52 FSS School Age Care (SAC) program, full daycare will be offered for those days. CONSTRUCTION Q29: Why don't we hire more workers to get the job (the elementary school temporary facilities) done quicker? A29: We have planned aggressively to mitigate negative impacts when possible. The requests for bids for this project are all out, and should be opened no later than April 6, 2016. Then all contracts will be awarded no later than May 2, 2016. Q30: Why are we moving some now and some later? Why don't we wait until we can move them all together? A30: We have the opportunity to move 62 percent of our children back to Spangdahlem at the beginning of the next school year. Our goal is to get as many kids back as soon as we can. Also, it's almost logistically impossible to move the entire elementary school back in the few weeks we are talking about between the end of November and winter break. Q31: Is the plan to renovate the elementary school off? A31: Yes, it will be repaired for use beginning this next school year. But, the long-term goal is to build a brand new elementary school from the ground up here at Spangdahlem. Q32: What will happen to the playground? A32: There will be playground equipment at both schools. Some of what was installed at Bitburg last year will come back to Spangdahlem. There will be a nice playground and room for the children to run and release their energy. Q33: Why did we move them last year to Bitburg? The whole point was to make a stable environment for them. A33: When we moved students to Bitburg last year, the plan was to add/alter the existing Spangdahlem Elementary School. The plan was to have students at Bitburg for only a couple years while renovations took place. However, the requested bids all came back $6-7 million over budget. At that point, renovating the elementary school was not an option because at that time funding wasn't secured. We now have funds allocated for a new elementary school, but we don't want to leave our children at Bitburg until the new elementary school is complete on Spangdahlem, which could take four, five, or even six more years. Q34: How confident are you in the timeline of construction? A34: I can't stand here and tell you that everything will definitely happen to this timeline. But, we have worked aggressively to cut the design process in half. All contracts are being solicited, and we will continue to work collaboratively to move projects forward as much as possible. Q35: What is the construction timeline? Will it occur while children are still in school? A35: First movement of dirt at the elementary school is scheduled to happen before school ends. Hopefully, the middle school will be done before school starts. But, there will be a fence to separate the construction site from the students. The temporary facilities will be assembled in a warehouse. The elementary buildings will be delivered in a September/October timeframe while the high school buildings will be dropped off next year, around the middle of April. Q36: There is a rumor about explosive testing at the middle school ... can you address this? A36: There is no "explosive" testing being done at the middle school. The correct term is "explosives testing." Every contract requires a variety of different testing, to include environmental testing and testing for old ordnances that might lie underground (remains from WWII). The explosives testing was completed, with no findings (a good thing). Q37: What are the contracts that we are talking about? A37: There are three main contracts: 1) The temporary modular buildings for the near term transition of all students to Spangdahlem; 2) A new 21st Century High School; and, 3) A new 21 Century Elementary School. The temporary facility contract includes site preparation (moving dirt to get the area ready) and the assembling of the building units. The new high school includes a $95 million contract, which is funded and has a 65 percent design completion. The elementary is now funded, but the design planning has not yet started. Q38: Did you look at the capacity of the CDC to see if they have room for the kindergarteners and second graders? A38: Yes, we looked at several locations around base to see if anything would work for an alternative. Unfortunately, they don't meet the requirements needed by DoDEA. OTHER Q39: Can we homeschool half the year and then enroll our children in January? A39: Homeschooling is always an option. We don't encourage or discourage homeschooling, but we do recommend keeping detailed records so that when you want to enroll your child in school, staff will know exactly what has been taught. Q40: Is kindergarten mandatory in an overseas environment? A40: No, the child has to meet an age requirement for DODEA - age 5 by September 1 for a kindergarten student and age 6 by September 1 for a first-grade student. Each state in the U.S. has its own rules/regulations regarding kindergarten. Q41: Will the principals be the same? A41: There are no projected staffing changes for the principals at this time. During the transition time for the elementary schools, the principal and the vice-principal will split their time between Bitburg and Spangdahlem. Q42: What time will school start in the morning for each of the schools? A42: We are still working on the schedule, and we will make sure it is public as soon as we have it ready.