Dade County, Fla., school officials have scheduled four conferences at sites throughout the country to provide information to those interested in submitting proposals for a new school design.
The conferences, all to take place this month, mark an expansion of the district’s Saturn School Project, an initiative named after a group of automobile plants created by the General Motors Corporation in which labor-management teams have collaborated to redesign the workplace. (See Education Week, June 7, 1989.)
In the next seven years, Dade County plans to construct 49 schools to relieve overcrowding. Rather than following traditional methods in building them, school officials issued a call for “a better mousetrap,’' explained Pat L. Tornillo, president of the United Teachers of Dade.
Any group--ranging from a team of teachers to business leaders or a private foundation--is invited to submit a plan. Each proposal must include a description of the architectural structure that8will be needed to complement the school’s program; a proposed curriculum; and a model for shared decisionmaking at the school.
The conferences are scheduled for Sept. 8 at Pennsylvania State University; Sept. 19 at Florida International University; Sept. 22 at the University of Southern California; and Sept. 29 at the University of Denver.
For more information, call Frank R. Petruzielo, associate superintendent for professionalization, at (305) 995-1470.--ab
