By Chip Brown | Maynardville@gmail.com

Have you ever considered the story of Noah? I know what the story is supposed to tell mankind. But have you ever really thought about it? God tells Noah to build this ark before the big flood comes. Noah gets to work and builds an ark and the animals are saved etc. What if that were to happen today? Noah lives in Tennessee and God tells him to build an ark. Does he set forth in his back yard and start building? Well he might but as soon as he did the neighborhood association would slap a stop order on him for building an eyesore. Maybe Noah could beat this in court and start back on his building project. Next come the inspectors, as it seems Noah didn't get the proper permits. Has his ark passed inspection by a group of engineers who have never been bass fishing let alone build an ark?

To me the story of Noah tells me today that with the huge floods aside, Noah lived in a more simple time than us. Today Noah would be instructed to start an environmental study on ark building and submit four plans.

I got to the site this week and found the architects from Michael Brady on the site pouring over plans. Make sure the outlet is 84" above the x-beam and such. Then one said there would be a smart board on the third wall and power would be needed there, an outlet must be shifted over. They were doing interior design on a wall that didn't exist yet!

I thought that a classroom was a thirty by thirty square with about twenty desks. Then you had a chalkboard and a former drill sargeant as a teacher. But it just simply is not that simple. Like a chess game these folks in the khaki pants and hard hats are planning ten moves ahead. I figured maybe two outlets per wall but I would have never thought about where or how high the outlets were. I guess this is why my office looks like a forest of extension chords.

Two things I need to comment on here are the new maintenance people and community input. The new maintenance staff of UCPS attended this week's meeting. Mike Johnson and his staff in (Figure 3) were on hand to talk to the architects regarding issues they have in other schools. Mike is hoping to make sure some of the faults we have in the other schools are avoided in the new Paulette school. Mike attending a few of these meetings and bringing the very people that deal with the issues daily will no doubt save us money in the long run.

Also on hand this week was Kelvin Nease. Kelvin has volunteered his time and money to fix the issues with the HMMS gym. In doing so he had first hand knowledge of what was wrong there and what we needed to avoid in the new school. Bringing in Mr. Nease and the others who give their time make this new school a true community effort.

I am told that the plan is to have the building under a roof by first of next month. This will allow the concrete people to get in and start pouring the slab. The slab will make up the sub-floor of the school. On this slab will rest the floors and also the interior walls.

The roof will be made up of a sub-roof and on top of that insulation and then on top of that the metal roof. It works sort of like the old thermos bottles. It can be a cool as frost on the inside and hot as tar on the outside but condensation will not occur. This is important to me because of the mold issues we have in other schools. This goes a long way to ensure that this will not become the case at Paulette.

One question I am asked probably more than any other is, "are local people getting jobs in the building process?" The answer is yes. I have shown where the block workers, the truck drivers etc. were local. Mr. Goforth was again urging his contractor to use local labor when possible. As such a local company will be doing the concrete work. You can be assured at every step Mr. Goforth is stressing giving as many jobs as possible to local people and companies.

Also at Paulette this week the excavation company began work on the front grade. Once this is completed the school will be more visible from the road frontage. In the video above you see a small dozer setting the grade. The grade of the school will be even with the grade of highway 33.

I got to speak at length this week with Jason Bailey who will be the Principal of Paulette. I can tell you I have never seen a young man more enthused or excited about taking the helm. One thing he was hopeful about was putting art back in the school system. While he can't be certain until the budget numbers are in he feels driven to have art. Studies have shown that art classes strengthen the connection of the left and right side of the brain in developing children. These same studies produced results that show in schools where art was removed overall test scores decreased.

Jason spoke with Robert McKenzie (a music instructor) about how the music classes could be set up at the new Paulette school. Mr Bailey gave him his vision for a music program and asked Mr. McKenzie to mull over the idea and come back to him with how the program could be implemented.

When I last spoke to Jason he was about to go look at desks for the classrooms. He had a new design he was interested in. The new design was shaped so that each desk would have an unobstructed view of the teacher. I had seen this design once before in a Sevier County school and it allows the teacher almost direct instant access to each student from a single position.

Mr Bailey also is taking the time to discuss the new school with established teachers. He is getting a feel for what is working and what can be done more effectively. This can range from different scheduling to putting certain rooms nearer to each other. Having known Jason for several years I can tell you he is one who will encourage community and parent involvement in his school.

This may be a secret I am about to reveal but hey if you have a secret and don't want it told don't tell me. I have learned that Mr. Jason is paying out of his own funds to buy the rights to some graphics for the school mascot. I can't post the drawings here until he owns the rights but I can give you a hint...How does Pawl Panther sound? Get it? Paw?

So back to my analogy about Noah. Old Noah built his ark and all went well. All is going well on the Paulette site due to planning ahead every step of the way. From outlets to what shape of desks will best benefit the students. Remember Noah just had to plan for his family and a pair of every animal. We have to plan for a bunch of teachers and about 400 children. I guess Noah still had it harder than us overall though....Paulette doesn't have to float.