Years of steady growth and the need to provide quality, safe, and secure educational facilities led Broken Arrow Public Schools to invest in the multi-phased renovation and expansion of Childers Middle School. Narrate Design worked closely with Broken Arrow Public Schools to facilitate a collaborative process involving district leadership, the school’s administration, and fine arts instructors to develop the project’s goals. The resulting program identified the need to renovate the school’s administrative spaces, expand the fine arts facilities, and provide a prominent memorial to the school’s namesake, Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Childers.
Phase I, completed in 2014, included the renovation and expansion of the school’s Orchestra Department and the addition of the Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Childers memorial. The new Orchestra spaces include a large classroom, instrument storage, and both individual and ensemble rehearsal rooms that offer outstanding acoustics and clean, modern facilities for rehearsal. The expansion is pure in form with a material pallet similar in tone and texture to the existing building. The new entry is clearly defined by a steel canopy supported by a beam that reaches across the site, visually connecting the existing building with the Orchestra expansion. The underlying volume offers an invitation into the school and provides a space for students to congregate after school.
Phase II, completed in 2021, includes an 8,000 SF expansion that houses science classrooms and a new choir room. All of the areas in the new addition are safe rooms complete with impact-resistant windows, pre-cast concrete walls, and FEMA-level doors. An additional 7,000 SF renovation created a new commons area and updated the cafeteria, media center, and administrative offices. The final touch, a new outdoor courtyard, offers a community gathering place for students and faculty.
Childers Middle School is now a state-of-the-art school offering flexible, contemporary learning spaces prepared to serve the growing population and meet the needs of today’s – and tomorrow’s – students and teachers.
