“The centerpiece of the additions, of course, will be the conversion of H-Courtyard into a ball pit,” said Mr. Trumble. “All this comes as a package to reinvigorate the IHS community,” he continued. “We just need good places for kids to think and study, and I think this is a giant step in the right direction.”
The package Mr. Trumble spoke of was the result of ICSD’s successful application for a grant that intends to help schools to make their buildings several million dollars more fun. “We had to use a lot of executive sessions at BoE meetings,” added Luvelle “Big Luve” Brown. “We wanted this to be a surprise.”
Although the ballpit will be the most expensive addition, there are also plans to convert half of each stairway to a slide. “We’re actually really excited about this,” said Trumble. “We think it’ll help students get to class faster and reduce tardiness. School becoming more fun—well, that’s engaging students, and that’s one of the Big Three E’s.”
The last change of note will be the addition of several ziplines over the quad. “We’re planning for them to run from between the upstairs junction between H and G buildings to the cafeteria,” said Trumble. “But seriously, stop and just imagine just how cool this will be.” According to plans drawn up by the BoE, the ziplines will feature an ultra-fast clip-in clip-out harness, along with a powerful electric recovery system to send almost a dozen students zooming to lunch every minute.
The only detractors of the plan were teachers of disliked classes. “You think kids are going to show up during the swim unit when they can just swim around and hide under a layer of colorful balls and play games on their Chromebooks?!?” raged one gym teacher. “In warm weather, it’ll be the zipline,” fumed another.
But the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. “Students should expect each of these changes to be fully in place when they start school next year,” explained Trumble before he let Luvelle Brown give some concluding remarks.
“I always talk about ICSD being a leader in education,” concluded Luvelle Brown. “Obviously this is very cool. And I have a message to all other schools: beat this! Engage! Educate! Empower!”