Join the conversation

Rounding out Public School Insights' three-week celebration of Earth Day is our interview with Milken Award-winning educator Tamala Newsome, principal of the revolutionary Rosa Parks Elementary School in Portland, Oregon.  The Rosa Parks School has garnered national attention for its eco-friendly building, its thoughtful incorporation of environmental science into the curriculum, and its integral place in the low-income Portland community it serves.

As a central part of Oregon's largest-ever low-income housing revitalization initiative, Rosa Parks plays an essential role in a larger project to offer community members integrated educational and social services from 6 am to 11 pm every day.  Newsome describes the school's genesis in a partnership among the Boys & Girls Club, the Department of Parks & Recreation, the Housing authority of Portland and other community partners.  The school and Boys & Girls Club occupy different wings of the same building, and community partners offer health, education, nutrition and other social programs for small children, youth, adults, and senior citizens.

The school's green design is paying environmental and educational dividends.  By emphasizing natural light, clean air, and reductions in waste, the architects have managed to reduce the building's energy costs, minimize its environmental impact and create a healthy and engaging learning environment.  In the interview, Newsome explains that the building has in fact become a teaching tool that helps children understand energy use, technology, and the impact of recycling while developing fundamental mathematics and reading skills.

You can download the entire recording here. [approximately twenty minutes]

Or check out the transcript below:

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  Do you think this building is very different from other buildings students in Portland have experienced?

NEWSOME:  Yes.  Absolutely.  Its the first school to be built in about ten years, and the first green building.

Also, [it's different in] the way that the building is designed-in the classroom space.  There are four "neighborhoods," we call them-each of either five or six classes surround a common area or a neighborhood, where you can bring children out or extend learning from the classroom.  I don't think that anybody will ever duplicate the exact design [of this building], simply because we were built around six heritage trees that we managed to save.  So it has a unique design, even in how this building was physically put in this space.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  You mentioned that it's a green school.  What exactly does that mean? 

NEWSOME:  It's an environmentally friendly building.  We have things such as a bioswale, where the groundwater doesn't have to go through the sewer-so it goes back into the ground when it drains off.  We have a couple of solar panels.  We can put up a graph of how much energy we're getting from the sun, and we use that in science lessons: we can turn on the computer, and the kids can chart and see how much rain has fallen, and those kinds of things. 

 We have louvers-because we have a big panel of windows that catch the afternoon sun.  They kind of reflect the sun away when it's the hottest part of the day.  In addition, our recycling and how we do business in the school makes for a perfect on-site lesson in taking care of our environment and taking care of our resources.  It's great to have a green space-it's great to have these things...but if we don't teach the kids about how this is really playing into the environment and taking care of it, nobody will know.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  Are you seeing any impact on your students from this wonderful environment?

NEWSOME:  I will say the school that we moved from...we moved out in August, and it was torn down in November, so that tells you what shape it was in.  We had wonderful things happening in that building.  Our students were learning.  So we know a building is not going to make kids learn-it's what goes on in a building.  But to have a building design that's more conducive to education and educational opportunities...[There are] things that we can do in this building that we could never do in our old school because we just didn't have the space.  And so I think that enhances what we were already doing.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  Do you think that it's a financial benefit to build these schools?  Does it pay for itself to do a really green build?

NEWSOME:  I think-more importantly-it's about really taking care of our resources.  You know, saving money-there's nothing wrong with that, not with costs going up-and that plays very well for the public.  Nobody is going to be upset if you have a building that's going to save on energy costs and those kinds of things.  And we don't get to rebuild schools every day.  So they really do have to be built well and [cost-effectively].

But we also live in a time where, I think, as a nation, and most certainly as a state, we are very conscientious about building green.  And because it's a school we can also use to teach children...we have an opportunity to have partners outside of school to come in and really talk about what we have, how it works, and why it's important.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  Could you describe how the school has promoted this stronger relationship with its community?

NEWSOME:  When the school was built, we were built in partnership with Portland Public Schools, Portland Parks & Recreation, the Housing Authority of Portland, and the Boys & Girls Club.  So there were four partners at the table, from design to delivery.  For example, we are built on property donated by the Housing Authority.  The Boys and Girls Club is actually built on-site, under the same roof as the school. 

By the way, this school ended up costing considerably less than it would have if Portland had just said, "Okay, we're going to build a new school on our own," because of the partnerships with the Boys & Girls Club, the land we were built on, the Portland Parks & Recreation...We share their gym.  They just built a brand-new gym, so we didn't have to build one for the school. 

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  Thinking about all this now, do you have any big messages you think the public education community should learn from your experiences?

NEWSOME:  I think that one of the benefits, as I see it, was really funny.  When we sat down to build this school, and we all came to the table-and it was like, "Okay, we're going to do this".  It hadn't been done before.  There was no model for building a school in the vision that people were talking about.

And it was funny, because all the organizations came to the table representing-basically, protecting-what they needed.  We didn't start off talking about, "What do we want the school to look like?"  We really started talking about our programs and what they were.  We talked about what we had to offer and we talked about what our needs were.  And as we worked together over the months, the relationships grew.  I think one of the things that we have learned is to share in the vision for each of the organizations, not just be concerned about our [own].  It's a very different way of doing business.  And it feels really, really good.

So I think my message is that we can build schools better.  We can be a better part of the community.  By having these agencies work with us in partnership on a daily basis, not just from time to time, we can get the job done, and we really build a strong continuity across the community.  It's powerful.

That partnership between the Girls & Boys Club is very powerful.  And I say that because I see those kids leave here every day, and they have somewhere to go.  There are people waiting on them, and they have programs designed for those children.  The children love it.  And it's a safe place.  They can get a meal.  And I don't have to worry about my kids' safety.