The building of a Union County School \ D. Wayne Goforth Director

The building of a 21st Century School for Union County


The School!

Paulette Elementary
Article 36


By Chip Brown | Maynardville@gmail.com

NOTE FROM CHIP
You may have noticed I have renamed each article. I called them Week 1, Week 2, etc. This led people to believe I was behind. When I started I intended to do one article a week. But simply put that was too often to see major change. The articles are about one every fifteen days. So I have renamed the articles as Article 1, Article 2, etc. Hope this makes it more clear to everyone.


Have you ever driven around parking lots at walmart or the Mall? There are several types of drivers in a parking lot. There are sharks...These are the drivers that circle slowly waiting for the lone car to move. Then they speed in to grab the newly open parking spot. Even though there are hundreds available, this is the prime parking spot they have been stalking. Then you have the Fas Eddies...These are the people that drive quickly into the lot take the first space and run into the building like there is a bomb in their car. And finally you have the Angry Andys...These drivers never really park they just circle two or three times screaming obscene things about other drivers and then drive away quickly.

Do I have a point to this? Not really, I just spent the whole weekend shopping with my wife. Not only did I witness all three of these drivers I was in fact each of them at one time or the other. I'm still steamed over it.

But yes there is a point. Have you ever driven past MES at three o'clock? It is busier than a towel sale at Hammers every day at this time. Every Principal MES has ever had has attacked this problem in their first year. yes, they will be the one to fix it! By their third year they have given up and simply take measures to keep the kids as safe as possible.

Wait I do have a point, I just thought of it! Look at Figure 1 and you will see that Paulette is beginning work on it's parking lots! That is lot with an "s". One of the major considerations of Paulette was parking. This was a lesson learned from experience at MES. One of the objectives at Paulette is to alleviate the crowding at MES and the parking issues. So the people that will be staying at MES will benefit from this project as well. Mr. Goforth has a plan to implement parking improvements at MES and add several new spaces and a new lot.

So what is the big deal with parking lots. If you need more parking put some gravel on a lot and park on it. Parking lots have their own special type of engineering. While parking lots have traditionally been an overlooked element of school projects by governmental oversight, UCPS is attacking the problem head-on.

Parking lots tend to be sources of water pollution because of their extensive Virtually all of the rain that falls becomes runoff. To avoid flooding and unsafe driving conditions, the lots at Paulette are built to effectively channel and collect runoff. Parking lots, along with roads, are often the principal source of water pollution in urban areas. The lots at Paulette are engineered to take the runoff, collect it and deposit it into a drain thereby alleviating any pollution issues to surrounding properties.

But more to the point we can all understand parking lots are for parking! We at MES understand that more than most. Parents at MES understand the need for parking. Mr. Goforth understood that when he first envisioned a new school. The problem will not happen at Paulette as it has at other schools. Parking and entrance and exit was taken seriously and included as a major characteristic in the design of this new school.

When I got to the site this week I first noticed that the little trailer we always met in was gone. In Figure 2 you can see the very first meeting ever held inside Paulette Elementary. The room is the speech room and is in the back corner of the school. We have been allowed to use the room for our weekly meetings. If you look closely at the floor you will see it is covered with heavy paper. While they don't mind us using the room they don't want our muddy boots on their new floor. As I said early on, we have an administration now that understands this is a major investment for our county. An investment of time and a sacrifice of money by our citizens. Times are tough in our country right now. But even in our bad times the citizens of our county stood up and supported a new school.

UCPS understands the major sacrifices made by all of us and is doing everything to protect our investment. This is before the building is completed but will remain a goal for years after it is done. Figure 3 shows one call point of the extensive alarm system in the school. Not only will this system detect an issue, but will alert the office. Then it will alert the proper authorities and in many instances take action on it's own to minimize the issue. This system was designed with two objects in mind. 1) Keep the students and faculty safe and secure and 2) Protect the investment Union County has put into this project.

I feel our county will have a very proud day when this school opens. Most likely dignitaries will give speeches and politicians will speak. But the real people who should take credit is each and every citizen of the county. They were the ones that decided it should be done and allowed UCPS to do it and the time to do it right!


Thank you to each and every person who made this possible.