Alabama Magnet School Races Toward Job Market

Students’ desktop computer follows them from class to class. Photo credit: Adam Stewart.

Polished concrete floors contribute to the industrial feel of Alabama’s Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School in Montgomery. They also provide a convenient racing track for the student-designed CO2 cars speeding down the hallways.

Built for only $70 per square foot, the $5.6 million facility gets its 21st century look from cost-efficient, pre-finished aluminum wall panels. The extensive use of interior view windows highlights the collaborative environment, filled with busy gearheads and tinkerers. “We’re looking for the average student who has an interest in technology,” says Brewbaker Principal Stan Cox. “We’ve seen ‘C’ or ‘D’ students turn into honor roll students because they’re in their element. They see the connection of textbook concepts to real-world applications.”

The school-to-work curriculum was created with input from Montgomery’s local Chamber of Commerce, who told school officials what skills they most valued. Traditional coursework in subjects such as English and math is integrated with Brewbaker Tech’s six academies: e-commerce, information technology, graphic design, engineering, building sciences, and a medical program. All students also participate in a required college and career program.

One project that exemplifies the school’s integrated, project-based approach is the planned greenhouse. Using CAD software, engineering students will design the structure. Students trained in graphic design will assist e-commerce students in their task to market and sell the plants. Finally, Brewbaker Tech’s environmental science students and landscaping classes will actually run the greenhouse. Giving students skills for the job market is the goal.

View windows help make student activity contageous.

“Our statistics showed that 70 percent of the Montgomery area’s students start college, but only 18 percent actually graduate with a four-year degree,” says Cox. “So, for whatever reason, students are not staying in college and have to start again at square one earning minimum-wage. We’ve built in a safety net now. In case students have to work while going to college or they start college and drop down to part-time, they have skills to get a good job.” Many Brewbaker students graduate with professional certification, such as the building sciences students who enter the workforce as first-class journeymen.

Almost all student coursework is performed on computers. The school boasts a computer-to-student ratio of 1:2, with 870 Dell computers serving a student body of 463. Their computer desktops follow them from classroom to classroom. On the school’s intranet, students check their calendars and check for special announcements. Students on the other side of the Digital Divide may check out laptops and digital cameras for homework.

Meanwhile, teachers use the intranet to coordinate with one another’s lesson plans. Overhead projectors allow teachers to use PowerPoint or the Web. They also can use conferencing/presentation computer systems with flex cams. Medical students take advantage of digital biological probes or work with computerized patient simulators, dummies that exhibit over 150 medical conditions. But technology is emphasized in conjunction with collaboration.

“In my educational background, every student was responsible only for his or her work. We train students that way and don’t teach collaboration, and then we expect these students to enter the work environment and work collaboratively,” says science teacher Ted Missildine. “But for 12 years of their educational life, we’ve taught them they’re responsible for their work alone. With the design of this curriculum, we teach them to work as a group. The building’s design lends itself to this.”

Corrugated aluminum panels provided an easy route for running wiring.

Special interior design elements include uplighting that is favorable to viewing computer monitors. The attractive, checkerboard pattern in the stained concrete is echoed above in a five-foot-square grid of ceiling tiles. Visitors to Brewbaker Tech are amazed at how quiet the facility is when they see how much activity is going on; sound is trapped in the air gap between sheetrock and the metal panels and acoustical buffering is provided by the insulation above the ceiling grid.

2WR/HolmesWilkins Architects Inc. used a pre-engineered metal building frame that gave the building flexibility. This setup proved essential when the Alabama Department of Education suggested a change in the original plans, saying each tech academy should have a central core space. “We completely redesigned the building interior and it only set the last bid package back three weeks,” said project manager Mike Rutland. The corrugated metal wall panels added an unexpected aspect of flexibility because they had ribs that could be used for wiring raceways. No holes needed to be cut into the walls, and when the building was redesigned, a new networking configuration was accomplished easily.

Despite the no-frills approach to construction, Brewbaker Tech is getting a lot of attention. Officials from other school districts in the Southeast visit regularly, and some have come from as far away as California. And the school continues to grow. Opened in August 2000, the Phase II addition of 10,000 square feet was started ahead of schedule and will be ready for occupancy this month. More classroom and curriculum space will be added in Phase III, expected to begin soon.

“When we were putting the school together, the U.S. Department of Labor told us that 100 percent of all jobs will require computer literacy by 2010. I believe that this school will prepare students for the year 2010 and thereafter,” says Principal Cox. “They have the skills and they’re not afraid of the technology. We don’t hear the question, ‘When am I ever going to use this?'” Taking advantage of Brewbaker Tech’s project-based approach to learning, School Construction News handed the photo assignment to Adam Stewart, a 9th grade graphics student.