In November 2016, the Sherwood School District passed a Capital Improvement Bond intended to fund a variety of projects throughout the District. The largest of these projects is a new high school that will open in the fall of 2020. With the opening of the new high school location, the opportunity will arise for the transformation of several schools, to new levels, in order to offer the District additional capacity at all levels. The existing high school will become a middle school; both Laurel Ridge Middle School and Sherwood Middle School will become elementary schools; and the existing Hopkins Elementary building will become the new location of the District Administrative Services.
We are very intentional about referring to these changes as transformations, because they are about so much more than altering the existing buildings. They are about rethinking what one middle school can “look” like — how we can create a model where students are still known, and where there is still a smaller school “feel.” The transformations are about re-imagining what can be with respect to elementary schools, and the students and staff within them, flourishing in new locations.
As we work towards the completion of these transformations, we are engaging all of our stakeholder groups in conversations to inform the process. One way this has occurred is through our Transformation Visioning Advisory Committees (TVACs). Each building transformation has its own TVAC, comprised of parents, certified staff, classified staff, Board members, and administrators – all serving in advisory roles to the District.