Three early college high schools embedded onto NE Campus have occupied parts of two buildings and caused relocations of college classes and learning centers as the fall semester began.
In January, the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District and Collegiate Academy of Birdville joined the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District in offering ninth through 12th graders dual credit opportunities.
The integration of these high school classes into NACB and the bottom floor of NBSS began in the middle of August.
“Both share a cafeteria space, formerly the Writing Lab, designed to support their combined student body of over 250 students.” said Kristen Jakowitsch, NE interim campus president.
She said relocating the Math Testing Center and learning labs were part of a separate initiative led by Learning Commons.
“This strategic move centralized academic support services on the first floor of the library,” Jakowitsch said. “The relocation of the Writing Lab proved to be a fortunate development as it created an ideal space to support our early college high school partnerships.”
On the bottom floor of the library, NE Learning Commons Managing Associate of Supplemental Instruction Kate Johnson sat in a cubical space where she said her team had recently finished setting up their temporary office.
“It’s a huge domino effect of one room is not ready, so the people moving in there cannot move,” Johnson said.
Birdville ISD took over the old SI office, and SI was supposed to move to the Veterans Center in the library. But the office the Veterans Center planned to move into had yet to be vacated.
“We are just waiting for all the pieces to fall,” Johnson said. “Eventually, it will happen.”
In a campuswide classroom renovation project, 19 classrooms were worked on over the summer. Jakowitsch said for some of these classrooms to be compliant with Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s space ratio guidelines, reassignments and scheduling shifts had to be made to accommodate the growing student population.
“The selection of classrooms for renovations is determined well in advance and was not influenced by our early college high school planning or partnership,” Jakowitsch said.
Johnson said SI was told they were waiting for a room to be painted before all the shifts into new offices could begin. However, it wasn’t until Aug. 11 that her team was informed their move would be to a temporary office, two days before Birdville ISD would start their classes.
“We are having to model adapting and adjusting,” Johnson said. “The only reason we’re really ready is because my support staff really put in a lot of work to make it happen.”
Shewanda Riley, NE English professor and department co-chair, said these moves are a creative way the campus has figured out to meet the needs of both student populations.
She said her department knew at the end of the spring these schools would be introduced in the fall and over the summer the campus would undergo construction.
“Anytime you have growth, you have those kinds of changes,” Riley said. “It’s good that we’re still growing, you know? Because that means students will get the opportunity to still get a quality education.”
Joelle Henry, a Caffe Noliz barista, said there has been an influx of collegiate academy students in her daily life.
“I feel like previous semesters, I only saw maybe 100,” Henry said. “But now, I’m feeling like 300. They’re everywhere.”
According to her, students wearing blue or yellow lanyards crowd around the café area. While they haven’t caused her any significant problems, she said she does have to clean up more.
“They make it really sticky in here,” Henry said. “They’ll leave their trash or sometimes try to fill their water bottle up with soda, and that gets everywhere.”
NE student Dallas Gartrell said they didn’t see many high schoolers in their previous semesters, but they’ve noticed a large presence of them during their first week back.
“It’s just a little jarring,” Gartrell said. “I’ll be hanging out with my friends and, you know, we’ll say some, you know, we’ll swear and say some things. And then there’ll be some kids nearby, and I don’t want to swear near children.”
Gartrell now feels like they must watch who is around just in case it is a minor. They said they don’t believe college students will negatively impact the high schoolers, but it is an adjustment.
“I don’t blame the kids for it at all, but it’s weird, and there have been way more of them,” Gartrell said. “I just don’t want to be a bad influence near your kids. So, I have to be a little more careful.”
