SEPTEMBER 2000

LAB SCHOOL TO BUILD ON NEW SITE

By Dave Fiore
Special to the Florida State Times

When the students at Florida High School return next year in search of their new homerooms, they may have a hard time finding them. They will be clear across town.

The Florida State University School (formerly named the FSU Developmental Research School and always known as Florida High) will leave its longtime campus home and move to the new South-wood development in southeast Tallahassee.

Southwood is a 3,200-acre, mixed-use community being developed by Arvida, the development arm of the St. Joe Company.

The move was recently approved by the Governor and Cabinet, paving the way for construction to begin on the charter developmental research school in anticipation of an opening date of September 2001.

Florida State will buy the property from Southwood, and Southwood will in turn donate $5 million to FSU toward building the new school.

School Director Glenn Thomas says the move is an opportunity to use new ideas that the old school was not designed for.

"It's just too hard to retrofit a building that was built in 1953; we would have to knock down walls," Thomas said. "We're laying out a prototype for schools of the information age, rather than schools in a manufacturing age.

"It won't be where the bell rings and you go into this mass production model where they go for 50 minutes and the English teacher pours some English in your head, and then "ding," the bell rings and you move down the conveyor belt to the science lab, and they pour in an hour's worth of science with no connection or relevance for the kids."

Instead, teachers will use large spaces divided by glass. There will be space for writing, reading and working on computers; a large area for lectures with smart boards and computer projection devices; another for labs; and a small-group setting.

"The staffing pattern is the same as for traditional classes," Thomas said, "but look at what we've done in terms of instruction and using people better."

Thomas says another benefit is that FSU students, researchers, parents and others - even a student who's sick at home - will be able to watch the class through Internet cameras embedded in the walls.

Another change is planned.

"We expect our students to not only be scholars, but to understand how to be successful in the community," Thomas said. "So we've created dedicated structures along the community edge of the school which we call storefronts." He said planned storefronts include a clinic for basic health services, computing technologies to repair computers or develop web sites, engineering for help with home building projects, hospitality/restaurant/ tourism management and an art gallery.

That's the type of community interaction that has Southwood developer Tim Edmond, president of the Capital Region for Arvida, excited about Florida High moving into the heart of his new development.

"Everybody is saying that education is instrumental in their decision to locate to a new community." Edmond said. "Florida High gives us that unique ability to create that learning component at Southwood."

Southwood has set aside 152 acres for an "Education Village," which will also include a Catholic high school and a public school, most likely for elementary grades.

Part of the agreement with FSU calls for 500 children from the community to be included on the school's rolls.

Because Florida High is a research school, all its students are selected through an application process to ensure that the classrooms have a representative mix of Florida's population.
Southwood is four miles from Florida's Capitol off Capital Circle S.E., next to the state's Capital Circle Office Complex.
Plans for the community include 4,700 homes, 2.9 million square feet of commercial and office space, a traditional town center adjoining a 123-acre central park and lake, more than 1,000 acres of interconnected park systems and open green spaces, health-care and education centers, houses of worship and community centers.

Meanwhile, on the FSU campus, the scrambling has begun for dibs on the school's old space. Early money is on the new medical school, but campus officials say it's too soon to make an accurate prognosis.

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