Student Designs Structure For Springdale School District

STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES This is an artist’s conception of the foundation’s planned monument designed by Springdale High School graduate Yasmin Chavez.
STAFF PHOTO ANTHONY REYES This is an artist’s conception of the foundation’s planned monument designed by Springdale High School graduate Yasmin Chavez.

SPRINGDALE -- High school students are getting hands-on engineering and architecture experience because of a monument being built outside the Springdale School District's administration building.

The monument will act as an outdoor hall of fame, said Chris Stecklein, executive director of the Springdale Public Schools Education Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit organization providing student scholarships and classroom grants and honors residents. The foundation holds a Cornerstone Event each year to honor a resident, alumnus and school district retiree whose names will be engraved on the monument.

At A Glance (w/logo)

Honorees

Springdale Public School Education Foundation’s Cornerstone Honorees are:

2013

• Loyd Phillips: retiree

• Walter Turnbow: patron

• Gary George: alumnus

2012

• Connie Williams: retiree

• Pat Walker: patron

• Jim and Gaye Cypert: alumni

2011

• Martha Lankford: retiree

• Mark Cloud: patron

• Gerald Harp: alumnus

Source: Springdale Public Schools Education Foundation

"We want to have something in place that carries their legacy on," he said.

Stecklein said he asked students in Springdale High School's Engineering and Architecture Academy in the fall to create some designs. Six students submitted work, which was reviewed by Stecklein, school principals and Superintendent Jim Rollins.

"We didn't give them parameters," he said. "We just said to have it reflect what their thoughts are."

District representatives chose a design submitted by Yasmin Chavez, who graduated in the spring and is attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she said. Chavez said she will be studying electrical engineering and computer science.

The design shows a structure resembling an old fashioned school house. The base is square with a pillar at each corner. About three-fourths of the way to the top is an oval piece of metal engraved with the foundation's logo. A pointed roof sits on top of the four pillars above the logo. The pillars will be stone or concrete, and the center brick.

Stecklein said he's working with district officials on the scale of the structure so it fits in the allotted space. The space is triangular and about 20 feet wide by 35 feet long. The monument will probably be between 6 and 8 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide.

The pillars are made of stackable pieces, Chavez said. Stecklien explained to the students the monument needed to be able to expand so names could be added to the pillars as the years went by. Instead of expanding it outward, Chavez planned it vertically.

Susan Jasan, executive committee secretary of the Arkansas chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, looked at the designs, and said it looks stable. The brick, stone and concrete in the design are good material to use outdoors.

Jasan said her only concern is about the base. She said footings can easily be overlooked, but are important because they help stabilize structures in high wind.

The monument will be paid for privately, Stecklein said. He didn't know how much the it will cost. He's speaking to Springdale businesses about donating construction material.

Stecklein said he intends for students to do most of the work. He would like to have students from Youth Strategies, a program for at-risk youth, mow the grass around it because they already have experience with lawn care at The Jones Center. He also wants industrial arts students from Har-Ber High School to help engrave names onto metal plates on the monument each year.

Allowing students to work on the monument helps them learn valuable engineering and construction skills, Jasan said.

"Any hands-on experience in this field is very valuable," she said.

The experience could also help students if they eventually become homeowners, Jasan said. They will understand aspects of construction, and how their homes are built.

Chavez said she learned how to see the project from the point of view of the people she was designing it for. The students who created designs went to the site to see where the monument will go. She saw the style of the building and created her design to match it. She said that skill will help her in engineering, because engineers have to create products that buyers will like.

"I learned to see the bigger picture," she said.

Rollins said the monument is important for the School District and community, because it's a way of recognizing local people who have positively affected the schools. He said it's important to have public recognition of the education foundation.

A time capsule will be inside the monument, Stecklein said. Each year's honorees will place an item in the capsule, which will go on display at the foundation's annual event.

Stecklein would like to start construction work in August and have it completed by October.

NW News on 07/05/2014

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