Classes at the middle school propose a plethora of projects for two city lots
By: Laurent Bonczijk
Newberg Graphic
Four MVMS students present their ideas for development of two city lots to the city planning commission.
Newberg’s city planners picked the brains of middle school students to plan the development of two city lots.
The exercise had sixth-grade students at Mountain View Middle School design what they saw as a good fit for the empty space across First Street from city hall and a 42-acre parcel off Springbrook Road.
Small groups of students were assigned one of the properties and then competed with their peers to present their designs to Mayor Bob Andrews and the planning commission.
Jaelyn Cloepfil, 11, who also reported on the event for the district’s newspaper, The Club Herald, said her team designed a dog park to go on the 42-acre property with a picnic area, play park and fountain for kids to run through. “We had rules and prices and everything,” Cloepfil said, “because you can’t run anything without money.”
“Lots of people have dogs, I realize,” she said, adding “the nearest dog park is in Wilsonville.” It takes quite a bit of time for her parents to drive there and back to exercise their two Boston terrier- bulldogs. “We figured that it would be a good idea.”
The project didn’t survive the cut each sixth grade class made to send the best ideas for public presentations.
Heather Bryant and Tom Willing, who both teach sixth grade language arts and social studies classes, said the school and city have collaborated on planning for four years, but it was the first time students were given specific lots to work with.
Bryant said the narrower focus of the project, instead of variations on improving Newberg in general, helped the students develop concrete ideas. “It wasn’t as realistic of a project,” she said of past iterations.
Willing, who said he prefers experiential learning where students are confronted with realistic projects, added that the project was used to teach the students about planning, population, migration, wants vs. needs and writing, as “we have students write a narrative proposal. I was really impressed by how mature this bunch of 11- and 12-year-olds was.”
