For the third straight year, the Batesville Community Education Foundation is donating a sizable sum to the Batesville Community School Corporation to expand its flexible learning spaces (FLS) initiative.

Sixth grade classrooms at Batesville Middle School have been chosen by the school administration to receive $15,000 from BCEF for this next round of items. These classrooms follow our complete English room at BHS (2017) and components in all first and third grade classrooms (2018). Our goal is to eventually impact a majority of BCSC students by introducing flexible learning items in more spaces every year. In 2018 alone, our FLS initiative impacted 14 additional classrooms.

Flexible learning space components can include items such as adjustable-height desks, chairs with motion feedback, and tables with integrated technology features. Local exit studies of BCSC students who have used flexible learning spaces have shown that student interest and engagement is higher when learning takes place in a such an environment.

This donation brings our three-year grant total for this signature project to $65,000, With technology changing so rapidly, BCEF continues to give our local public schools more flexible classroom environments that work with a variety of assignments. When teachers are provided with these pieces, they can move from a traditional classroom atmosphere with rows of desks to clusters for small group projects or one big group for full class participation—all within seconds.