The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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January 11, 2012

District sends faculty, administrators on site visits

By Kelsey Ryan Globe Staff Writer

JOPLIN, Mo. — With the design phase of several buildings in Joplin Schools ending in May, the district has sent 66 administration, faculty, parents and community members on site visits to 22 schools and two technology company headquarters across the country.

The point of the site visits, district officials say, was to put together ideas for the design phase of the new schools that will replace the ones destroyed in the May 22 tornado, and to look for ideas when renovating the other elementary schools in the district.

Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer said the district is “cherry picking” the best ideas from each of the schools they visited.

“This gave us an opportunity to explore and to find out what is great across the nation and bring that back to Joplin, to bring what’s best for our kids,” she said. “We believe that after all the things that our kids have been through, they deserve the very best schools. That’s our goal.”

The visits lasted eight weeks, from October to December 2011, and stopped in eight states: Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Indiana, Arkansas, Nevada and California. The district spent more than $15,000 on lodging, transportation and meals to visit the sites.

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