THE PLAN (for now)

Hello, Jane here ... making my first blog post! (Oh my, I am officially a blogger). Hanna and I, as well as the other members of the Robson PAC, are taking on a fairly large project. Its a bit overwhelming exciting to think of all the work that needs to be done to achieve the desired end result, but like any large project its best tackled one piece at a time. 

The Robson Outdoor project has naturally split into two different phases of development; first phase involves dealing with the existing portable foundation, the second involves developing the yard space into some sort of educational area, likely broken down into different sections with one of them being a school garden.

Discussions between Hanna and myself have ended in the same conclusions. Phase one really is about making the area safe, it is where we are going to incur the high costs, but when compared to phase two, it’s a relatively straight forward process.

I feel that phase one is really going to establish the bones of this out door space. It will be the center piece around which different learning areas are placed (because it really does divide and dominate the yard). It will be an area protected from the sun and rain – making the whole yard a truly multi season space. It will hold a lot of bodies – making it ideal for presentations or large group activities that that require people to be at tables and chairs.

It is anticipated that phase one will include the following steps:

1	Initial assessment of the foundation – Contract #1 with Engineering Firm	We will learn our options based on the physical attributes of the foundation and our budgetary constraints.
2	Concept development meeting with stakeholders	Based on assessment report we will decide what features we would like to see developed in the space. Stakeholders involved will hopefully include  teaching staff, School District Director, interested parents and community members, and students
3	Plan Development – Contract #2 with Engineering Firm	This will involve concept refinement and cost estimating and the preparation of detailed design and building permit drawings
4	Finding the funds	Grant writing, fundraising, begging, pleading… etc
5	Construction Period	This will involve tendering the project to a general contractor, or piecing it out to individual trades, possibly procuring materials
6	Re-installing perimeter fence	Last piece in the safety puzzle
7	Furnishing	Based on concept development – possibly including table and chairs, picnic tables, different “centres” , a stage area, storage

Phase two is going to be a much more organic process. It is going to involve a good bit of research into what other schools are doing – both ideas that have been successful and ideas that have come up short. It is going to involve a lot of stakeholder participation and a long term plan. Depending on the extent of development there might have to be a parent group managing the area. It will also have to be developed in a way that doesn’t increase the workload of school maintenance. Phase two will be less expensive, hopefully will involve plenty of volunteers and volunteered material, but will have to be executed cautiously as the goal here is long term success!