Coming in for a landing at Dyess Elementary as Abilene ISD continues planning replacement

Dyess Elementary is all about airplanes.

Sure, a majority of its student population come from military families, many of whom live at nearby Dyess Air Force Base. And the school already goes by the nickname "Jets."

But as design and, soon, construction ramps up for replacing the Abilene Independent School District campus, more connections to flight are being explored.

Preliminary renderings released this month show the walkway leading up to the front door of the new school, set to open for the 2021-22 school year, will be painted similar to the airbase runway.

With one minor change.

instead of being numbered 34, school employees wondered if it might be numbered 57.

"We wondered why," said Ruppert S. Rangel, principal architect at Parkhill Smith & Cooper. "They said that was the year the original school was built. So we'll make that change."

It's a plane

There's a hidden airplane secret that even Rangel was unaware of when he showed off the latest preliminary designs to Abilene ISD trustees a week ago.

While reviewing the schematics with trustees, he said, a school board member pointed out that, while not perfectly, the top-down look of the school resembled an airplane.

The classroom wings were the nose of the plane and the two wings, while long hallways, the media center, cafeteria and special education classrooms make for the "plane's" body and the administration offices, gymnasium and kitchen form the tail.

"It's just a coincidence," Rangel said. "We didn't plan that. But it does look like an airplane."

The illusion disappears when looking at the school from the side, where portions are two stories while other sections are only one. And the various sections of the building, such as the kitchen is located compared to the administration building (both of which would be the horizontal stabilizers of the "plane's" tailplane) don't line up.

Up in the air

While the new school may be drawn in the vague outline of a plane, there is already an actual plane at Dyess Elementary. And, with the new facility moving the school's footprint to a new portion of the property, that plane's future might be questionable.

Rangel said money for construction doesn't include relocating the F-4 Phantom II that sits on the grass outside the school now. Nor does funding in the bond provide for moving a Korean War monument on the current school's entryway.

So, Rangel said, he's designing a memorial park, where the two can be moved. He said he's hoping some in the community step up and make it happen.

When the construction project is put out to bid Jan. 20., Rangel will include the memorial park, along with a plan to retrofit the existing gymnasium into an outdoor, covered pavilion, as alternates.

If the memorial park is created, Rangel is placing it along a new walkway that would provide off-street walking to parents and students coming from the base. It more than doubles the distance they'll need to hike from the gate at the intersection of Jennings Drive and Delaware Road.

Collaboration is key

The last time Parkhill Smith & Cooper designed a school for Abilene ISD was in August 2016, when, the district received a new Johnston Elementary.

That school focused heavily on requiring teachers to collaborate with each other, re-imagining classroom space from a single room to be more of a central hub space where teachers work with each other throughout the day.

In many respects, Rangel said, the concept worked. So, when the company was brought in to create the new Dyess facility, thanks to the architectural firm's history designing schools for military bases around the world, they were asked to continue developing this collaboration concept.

"The classrooms won't have many permanent structures in them," Rangel said. "We're going to be encouraging the teachers to be out of their rooms, working in the hub spaces."

One significant difference between the design for Dyess and what was built for Johnston, Rangel said, is the presence of a central library. At Johnston, each pod is equipped with a small version of what would be found in the library.

But in the drawings for Dyess, there's a two-story space, filled with reading nooks, a maker lab space and many more options for students to get creative, hands-on or introspective as they choose.

Built to branch off the library, these pods will house grade levels within themselves, encouraging the collaboration. Three will occupy the first floor (in theory, kindergarten, first and second grades). Three more will be on the second floor (third, fourth and fifth grades).

Aside from the hubs, each pod will have six classrooms, though some may not be filled if student population is low. Rangel said the school is being designed to educate about 750 students, though Dyess Elementary is nowhere near that number currently.

With those classrooms, there will be a group work room, bathrooms and storage. Stairways also will connect each pod from the second floor with its corresponding one below it.

That's because the campus design puts significant emphasis on campus security, Rangel said.

"That's just the world we live in," he said.

Blast doors

When it comes to keep children and teachers safe, the school in Rangel's designs offers many ways to accomplish the goal.

Each pod is secured by special double doorways able to prevent intruders from gaining access to students in class.

Before that even becomes an issue, though, the school is equipped with two sets of doors that offer separation between the main entrance and the students. This, Rangel said, would serve two purposes.

One is the doors allow the district to prevent any fire from spreading throughout the building. But, he said, they also can be shut with the press of a button from the principal's office in case an intruder is attempting to gain access to the classroom pods.

The hallway between the front entrance and the classrooms is long enough to allow the doors to close before the intruder could gain access, Rangel said.

Other aspects

Rangel is hoping to also include a large picture of the school's namesake, Lt. Col. William Edwin Dyess, on windows near the front entrance.

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If included in the project, the picture would serve to remind students the history of why they're at a school bearing the Dyess name.

Rangel also:

► Hopes to suspend a giant monarch butterfly sculpture from the library's ceiling, since it's related to flight and "Abilene is on the pathway the butterflies take;"

► Would like to include throughout the school various historical references to man's quest to fly, be it facts about Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, the Wright brothers or many other options. "This way we're acknowledging all races, all sexes, who were involved in flight," he said.

Lindbergh and Earhard both flew to Abilene back in the day.

► envisions a large mural in the cafeteria that depicts a space shuttle launching and the words "JETS REFUELING STATION" welcoming students to their meals.

"We're having fun with this project," he said. "We have design freedom with this project, so we're going to make it good for the kids."

Based in Abilene, Timothy Chipp covers education and general news for the Reporter-News. If you appreciate his work and that of the rest of the staff, please consider supporting local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.