As the parent of an Owego School District 308 kindergarten student, John Griffin wants to ensure that his child as well as other students get the best education possible.

Griffin, who is a 2011 graduate of Oswego High School, took part in a facility planning workshop Sept. 10 at Murphy Junior High School in Plainfield.

Last October, school board members unanimously approved a $380,000 contract with Wight & Company to develop a master facility plan for the district to address current and future facility needs.

Wight & Company is an architectural, engineering and construction firm.

“It is critical that our children grow up to be well-rounded adults who are active in their community and critical thinkers,” Griffin said in talking about why he wanted to be part of the facility planning workshop.

“I’m big on learning through exposure. I take my daughter to museums. I take her to the zoo. And we learn through interaction with those things. And I think that it’s important for educators to have that same kind of access. If they can’t go to a museum, can they bring the museum into the classroom and have the kids interact to some extent,” Griffin said.

During breakout sessions that were part of the workshop, community members talked about some of their concerns and what they would like to see improved. That included a desire for bigger classrooms, more outdoor education programs as well as more career and technical education programs and improving security by putting cameras in more strategic places.

Griffin was happy the district is offering community members the chance to take part in the facility planning process.

“We really do need a diversity of opinion,” he said. “The more people that get engaged in the conversations, the more we can have a diverse and open conversation about what these schools should look like.”

Superintendent Andalib Khelghati thanked the community members for taking part in the workshop session. The district will also host a virtual community meeting from noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16.

More information is at the district’s website.

Plans for the schools

Stuart Brodsky, principal with Wight & Company, talked to those in attendance about what the company is trying to do.

“We specialize in designing educational learning environments, particularly early childhood through 12th grade,” he told those attending the facility planning workshop. “We also specialize in designing healthy and sustainable learning environments. That means buildings that are good stewards of the environment and also buildings that are healthy to be in, where students are going to be comfortable and can thrive.”

As part of its plan, Wight & Company has been looking at the physical condition of each of the district’s buildings, including “the walls, the roof, the windows, the mechanical systems and lighting,” Brodsky said.

Educational alignment is something else that is being looked at as part of the master facility plan.

“Educational alignment is a term that simply means we’re going to look at what would it take to better align the interior learning environments and the site learning environments with the goals of the district’s strategic plans,” he said.

To improve the educational alignment, the plan makes several suggestions about things that could be done at each building. That includes modernizing the administrative spaces at Murphy Junior High, improving the science labs at Oswego High School and increasing student parking at Oswego East High School.

Eighty percent of the district’s buildings were constructed between 1995 and 2010. As Wight & Company noted, the district has been taking care of its buildings and no building is in critical condition.