- Hey everybody, I'm Connor.
That's Doug. And this is the Bethel
School District Presents podcast.
And we've got a heck of a show for you today.
We are jam packed with amazing Bethel people
and we are talking first or most interesting jobs, Doug.
You know, most people wouldn't choose Witless Layabout
as a career path, but you've somehow made it work.
Where did you get your start?
- Witless Layabout. I'm adding that to my business card.
That is very solid. I didn't get my start in podcasting
or school communications.
I actually started at Wendy's
as a Fry cook slash grill person.
And then when they saw how untalented I was back there
and how handsome I was, I got to move right up to cashier
where I earned the title of employee of the month,
February, 1992.
- Wow, that's bizarre because my sister,
who's actually your age,
was also a dutiful Wendy's employee when she was 15 years
old, way over in Kalispell, Montana.
She was also employee of the month.
I don't know if it was February,
but you could have been two of the shining stars
of the Dave Thomas empire at the same time.
- That's bizarre. I actually still have my trophy.
You'll have to see if she still has hers. Mine.
I keep on my desk here at work
because it's my proudest achievement.
- And that's not the only
knick-knack you have from your time.
- Not a knick-knack .
- It means something. Uh,
and that's not the only useless ephemera you have from your
time in the Dave Thomas Empire.
You also have one of the most
fascinating placards I've ever seen.
I've spent way more time than I care
to admit staring at this.
It's practically a zen coon to me.
Tell us what this thing says.
- Okay, so I won't give you the story behind it,
but it's a two by two
small little plastic placard, as you called it.
It's the same color as Wendy Herselfs hair
with engraved white lettering.
And it says this lettuce
for sandwiches upon request only due to lettuce quality.
- Now, good listeners, really let
that absorb into your brain.
Think it over, let it wash back
and forth like the ocean, like a summer breeze.
. What does it mean ?
- It - Could mean anything.
Is the lettuce only available
because it's so good
that they don't wanna spare it unless you ask?
Or is it so bad that they're gonna only give it
to you if you really want lettuce?
And actually I have a feeling that you know the correct
answer to this, but hold off on that
because we got a lot of people around the table right now
and they're probably getting really
sick of this lettuce talk,
- Judging by the looks on their faces.
I think they just might be joining us in the studio.
A lot of folks today, Dr.
Brian Lowney, our assistant superintendent
of secondary education.
Brian, what was your first or most interesting job? I've
- Had, uh, quite a few, few interesting jobs,
but I'd probably go, uh,
it wasn't my first, it was my second job.
I had it all through high school.
Um, I washed the cars at a local cemetery,
mountain view funeral home, so I was, uh,
I washed the hearses, the limos
and the vans that the folks, um, used as part of kind
of their, um, impromptu morgue at the funeral center.
So, and that would include washing the
outsides and the inside.
So I do have a couple
of like interesting stories
when you work at a place like that.
- I bet you do. And I don't know if I'm ready to hear those.
. Sarah Kochi, our director of construction
and planning here in Bethel.
What was your first or most interesting job?
- Well, right out of college I worked
for an engineering firm where one
of my first assignments was actually
to prepare permit documents
for a shoreline project on McNeil Island.
At the time, it was still an active correctional center
and my assignment included a site visit to the island,
which also included a ferry with inmates and shackles
and a full island tour.
- Yikes. Okay. We have a real dark side
of the table here, .
I'm hoping things will be a little lighter
on this side here.
We'd have two special guests, Philip Rele
with NAC architecture.
What was your first or most interesting job you had?
- When I was in college in Santa Barbara, California,
I worked installing screens
and shades, so like window shades,
screen doors, things like that.
So it was going into people's houses,
installing whatever they had ordered.
One of the houses I went into was Steve Martin's
vacation house in Montecito,
and it was a super cool
ultramodern house that was literally dug into a hillside.
It was all concrete walls, floor, ceiling,
and then all glass on one side where it,
where it overlooked the view.
And that's where I was installing these vertical blinds
and I got to, I picked up and played his banjo
and was just sort of poking around in there.
- That is a wild and crazy story.
I do have to ask you, I'm a huge Steve Martin fan,
love only murders in the building these past few seasons.
Do you have a favorite a Steve Martin movie or show?
- It's gotta be the Jerk for me. That's just a classic.
- Absolutely. And last but not least,
and VAs with NAC architecture also joining us here
and your first
or most interesting job, the tough acts to follow here.
- Right. Mine weren't quite as interesting, so I'll go
with my first job
and I grew up in a really, really small town
and I worked at the local pizza restaurant.
And so because it's a very, very small town,
we did everything.
So it wasn't just, you didn't just wait tables
or work the ovens or make the pizzas or do the dishes.
You had to do everything on your shift.
And so it, yeah, it was, it was fun. It was interesting.
You learned how to do a lot in a very short amount of time.
- Absolutely. A fellow food service
industry veteran here at the table.
Now that we've talked about some interesting jobs from our
past, let's talk about the jobs we're doing right now,
especially NAC architecture.
You all have been described
as an educational design focused architecture firm.
You've done a lot of work
with us here in Bethel over the years.
Give us a little background.
What are some of the district
projects you've been involved in?
- Well, NAC architecture designed
Graham Kason High School, uh, long time ago.
And we've just finished up the expansion to Graham Capon,
so adding more classrooms
and getting kids outta portables at that school
and auxiliary gym, expanding the commons.
We also are under construction now
on Expedition Elementary
and we are working on the new Bethel High School.
That's the biggest project that we've done for Bethel.
- Absolutely. And a very anticipated project
here for our community.
We're really excited to see that one get ground broken
and get underway here.
Now we're not talking about one of those projects
that you're working on, but really a philosophy
behind design work here today through what you guys do
with site design, building layout, circulation,
common spaces and classroom design,
you're helping our special education students to feel
and be included with our general education students.
What inspired your firm to start looking at design this way?
- We like to take deep dives into what is going
to make a successful school.
And a few years ago we did a lot
of research into special education spaces
and what can really make those work well,
we were concentrating at that time
on self-contained special education programs.
More recently, we have been focused on inclusion
of special education students with the general population
and how we can design a school that supports that mission.
And part of that has been working on Expedition Elementary.
We were able to include some aspects of the design there
and launched a research project to inform us on
how to best do that. So
- We started off in this research project interviewing
different experts, one of which was Dr.
Brian Lowy, to really gain insight into
what people in schools are experiencing, you know,
what teachers are experiencing,
administrators are experiencing.
We also reached out and interviewed college professors
that are, you know, do research on this subject
and we gained a lot of different insight from everyone.
And so we brought that all together
and then we tied it back to what makes it, you know, work
as far as design goes.
And so it's not just from the teachers
and administrators point of view,
but it's also includes design thinking.
And so we came up with, you know, a booklet of strategies
that are best suited for designing these spaces.
- I really love that we've done stories in the past about
incorporating classroom furniture that moves wiggly chairs,
rocking chairs, tables that can be rearranged more easily
for the teachers, things that teachers can use
to help their students in the classroom
with different learning styles,
make classes more interactive academic environments.
But the design of classrooms also plays a role.
And I find that really, really interesting.
You all are thinking about acoustics,
lighting the walls themselves.
Let's talk a little bit about that.
- I'll start by talking about the shape
of the classroom itself.
One thing that we are doing now is
what is called a fat L shaped classroom.
And so that means that the classroom has a couple
of areas that can be used to differentiate instruction,
to serve different students that are, that are up,
that are working at different levels.
And that l shape provides enough flexibility
as well as allowing the teacher
to supervise the entire classroom,
but also provide different areas
to help separate out that instruction.
And that works with general population students.
And it becomes particularly important when you're also
serving special needs students.
Special needs students will often work with paraeducators
or people, specialists that come into, uh, the classroom
and they need a little bit of area to, to work directly
with a student or a small group of students
while instruction is going on without being pulled out
of the classroom to work in a different space.
So by making the classroom flexible,
we can accommodate all those needs. Right.
- Once we, once we take
that deep dive into the classroom shape
and the layout, then we start to look at all
of the physical aspects
of like the walls like you were mentioning,
and acoustics and lighting.
So for walls
and mechanical systems, you know, for acoustics we look at,
you know, what is the mechanical system doing?
Is it transferring sound from one classroom to another?
Um, inadvertently there are things we
can do to mitigate that.
There is different types of wall construction
that we can look at.
So the metal stud in the wall is what transfers the noise.
And so there are different ways to disconnect, um,
gypsum board from the stud, for example.
Um, for lighting, you know, lighting is really important,
making sure that we cut glare.
So shading, thinking about both indirect and direct lighting
and then making sure spaces have a lot
of natural light for students.
- Like you said, that classroom layout is helping all
of our students, including the students with special needs.
Brian, we've been moving towards including more special
needs students in our general education classrooms
through Universal Design for Learning.
What benefits are our special education students getting
when they're learning alongside their general
education peers?
- I would just rephrase the question.
It's really what benefit are all of our students getting?
For example, what I tell you about, uh,
anybody who's ever been involved in unified sports
where we have students with disabilities participating
alongside, uh, peers without disabilities,
that often when you talk to kids and families
after the students without disabilities seem
to have gotten way more out of that than even the kids
with disabilities
who are participating in, in unified sports.
So I'd say the same thing is true about
inclusive classrooms.
Uh, the first thing I'd look at is the benefits
to our students without disabilities when they are, uh,
learning alongside their peers with disabilities.
So we see a ton of gain in both
and the research which support the gains that our students
with, with and without disabilities have in
inclusive classrooms.
The research for our students with,
with disabilities is really stark.
Meaning it's very apparent that when students are
with disabilities are with their gen ed peers,
with gen ed teachers,
and with gen ed curriculum, meaning at grade level,
the gains in learning are heads
and tails above what it would be if, if our students
with disabilities were in a classroom
where they were not working alongside their peers
in the gen ed curriculum.
So you're right, we've pushed on it pretty hard the last few
years and that push our teachers have really embraced this.
And that doesn't mean it's not hard work
to build a classroom that meets the needs of all students,
but the work with Philip and Anne
and the team at NAC, uh, among others has really helped
to take the design of the room outta the equation
and let's focus on building learning activities
that work for all students.
Less on the ways that a, a building
or a classroom might limit the ability to do that.
So really appreciative of the partnership we have with NAC.
- Absolutely. And somebody that works with NAC more
than anybody else at the table.
Sarah Kochi, we have four bond projects
currently underway right now.
We opened two new elementary schools in the past two years
with one more under construction.
Where are we seeing this inclusive design?
Is this in all of our current projects?
And do you have any interesting examples
of design work in action that you could share with us?
- We are definitely seeing inclusive design
in all of our projects.
As Brian mentioned here at the district, we firmly believe
that designing for the highest needs not only benefit those
students with specific requirements,
but students across the board.
So with some of nacs guidance
and uh, direction,
we have included several opportunities within our existing
and new buildings, some of which Philip
and Anne touched upon in terms of our classroom layout.
Transparency through windows
and glazing, our lighting, our acoustics, some of those
building materials going beyond the classroom.
We're providing multiple types of play area options
that include play fields, hard surface play, covered play,
played structures, quiet reflection areas.
We have created outdoor learning spaces and courtyards
and transition spaces to help with, uh, any sort of sensory,
uh, recalibration.
We've created multiple breakout small group spaces, uh,
that offer a different environment, uh, for students
to be able to, uh, learn in different ways.
We've also paid attention
to the open spaces in within our buildings like our gyms
and cafeterias, common spaces.
Been thoughtful about the locations of those in relationship
to maybe some of our lower stimulus areas
to really be attentive to all students
and how we can create a space that makes, um, feel safe
and comfortable throughout the day.
- That is a lot of information all at once.
I want to, I wanna take one of those
and just kind of dissect it for a minute.
And, uh, Philip, maybe you can help us with this.
Let's talk about school entryways.
Maybe compare a school entryway with inclusive design
to one without, what differences would we see? Older
- School designs often had the a DA access
around the back or on the side of the school,
and then a big stairway leading up to the entry.
Now we try to bring everybody through the same point
and give them the same sense of dignity
and arrival that all of the students are getting.
That comes down to the width of entries.
Allowing enough width so that somebody in a wheelchair
or with a walker could walk side by side with their friend
as they approach the school.
It comes all the way down to very small details.
If you're using a walker,
those things have really small wheels.
So a small transition
in the paving can really trip somebody up
and lead to a, a moment where they really lose dignity.
Watching all of that during construction so that
we have flush surfaces going all the way into the building.
Easy transitions, lots of visibility.
I think that those would be the hallmarks
of an inclusive school entryway
- That is so much to think about in thinking
of just one part of the school.
Your job at NACI can't even fathom it.
It's, it's every piece
of the school you're thinking about in ways I've never,
the most I think about a door is will it open?
You know, , you all have a,
a much bigger worldview looking in that
and I, I, I really appreciate it
and we all do here at Bethel.
Brian, before I close this out,
you once told me inclusive building design is nothing short
of us demonstrating our values. What did you mean by that?
- Sounds super smart.
Sounds like something I would say .
Uh, on a personal level, if you wanna know
what someone's values are,
you can look at their checkbook and their calendar.
And that same is true for an organization.
So when you look at Bethel School District
and say, uh, what are we committed to?
When you look at NAC our partners in this
work, what are you committed to?
Well, what are you spending time and money on?
And what we're spending time
and money on, specifically time right now is investing in,
in creating schools where each kid feels valued.
- We work with a lot of school districts across the region
and actually across the country.
Bethel School District stands out with their level
of engagement with our design process.
They have people in every one of our coordination meetings
with our consulting engineers.
They're always at the table with us going
through all the decisions.
And that makes it easy for us to do our best work
and achieve some of these things
that we are interested in doing
to provide great learning environments.
It's really noticeable here at the level of commitment
that people have to doing the right thing.
- Thank you to all of our amazing guests today.
What a great conversation. And Steve Martin's banjo.
That's amazing. Love to get my hands on that little fiddle,
- , banjo is n thing.
Whatever. Let's put your musical ineptitude aside
for at least the rest of this show.
Connor, we never got to hear your first
or most interesting job.
Now on the show, you have previously talked about working at
the Montana Airport and meeting Shaquille O'Neal.
You also have mentioned to me personally
that you owned a skateboard shop as a teenager.
A fact that I still find hard
to believe, but you claim is true.
I don't want you to pick either of those.
I want you to pick a third
- Option.
I have had some interesting jobs.
My very first job, which I won't go into detail about
was at Taco Bell.
Pretty boring. And I'll set another kind of interesting job.
I won't talk about it 'cause it speaks
to my lack of character.
I'll let you read what you want into that.
But I will tell you about my time working as a temp agency,
as a college student, where they gave me such varied tasks
as stuffing envelopes for eight hours
to painting a hospital all the way to working in the heart
of the Redwood Forest on a construction site.
- What an eclectic mix of jobs. That is an interesting one.
We have a lot more to talk about next week,
and we hope you join us here on the show.
I'm Doug the Fry cook.
He's Connor the temp, and we're outta here.