Nearly 300 residents rank priorities for Lakeland Prep

Nearly 300 residents Lakeland residents have spoken out, and they’re in close agreement about what they want from Lakeland Prep.

The school district’s proposed new facility, combining middle and high schoolers in one structure, was the topic of a community input meeting on Jan. 15 and a week-long online survey that followed. The district’s consultants, Southern Educational Strategies LLC, summarized Lakelanders’ comments at a Feb. 9 Lakeland school board meeting.

They had 97 participants in the Jan. 15 meeting, where they answered a questionnaire that ranked their priorities, and then they broke into focus groups for further discussion. The online survey drew participation from 199 people and used the same process of ranking priorities and accepting comments.

SES provided these demographics:

• Meeting: 81 percent were parents/guardians with 77 percent in the 30-49 age range
• Online survey: 81 percent were parents/guardians with 75 percent in the 30-49 age range

Participants ranked their priorities for Lakeland Prep, using the five-point Likert scale.

Regarding Lakeland Prep’s building design, the most frequent comments at the meeting and again in the online survey were:

• Separation of middle-school and high-school student areas
• An STEM/STEAM emphasis (science, technology, engineering, the arts and math)
• Science, technology and computer labs
• Student With Disability (SWD) and special needs programs
• School security processes/systems
• Adequate parking/traffic separation
• Theater/auditorium, otentially shared with the community

Written by Carolyn Bahm, Express editor. Contact her at (901) 433-9138 or via email to bartlett.editor@journalinc.com.