The Colton Joint Unified School District is committed to a transparent and inclusive process for the rebuilding of the Walter Zimmerman Elementary School. As such, the district has hired a specialized design team to walk the Bloomington community through an inclusive and structured process to gather input from the wider community. The process is called a Design Symposium.

“The Colton Joint Unified School District is committed to a transparent and inclusive process.”

The goal of the Symposium process is involvement and interaction with key project stakeholders and what we call subject matter experts. Its a fancy term for you. Each of us is an expert in our own areas of specialty, whether we are teachers, parents, students, principals, custodians, or community members. Your direct involvement in this process will provide essential insights and contribute to the development of both a collective vision and solution.

The Design Symposium will be conducted over four meetings: three in person and one online. It will also include a web-based outreach through this website and through online surveys. This website was set up by the architectural team, the DLR Group, as a Project-Based Website that allowed for the attendees to monitor on-going design progress and make additional comments following each Design Symposium session. If you are unable to attend this or other meetings, this website will provide updates following each session and further opportunities for input through surveys or the online feedback page.

Central to the District’s commitment to transparency is the understanding that the design of the new campus will not start until the design team has had a chance to hear from the Bloomington Community. The Architects will not start designing until they have had a chance to hear from you.

“The Architects will not start designing until they have heard from you.”

The process will conclude with documentation of the input and ideas shared by the community. The ideas shared by the community will become teh springboard for the architectural design of the campus. The goal is that attendees will see their fingerprints on the design at the presentation of the schematic concepts.

Session Overview

The process encompasses four primary areas of exploration, evaluation and envisioning. These four areas are a structured and disciplined approach to organizing information. The architects will be facilitating discussion and assisting everyone to provide input through workshop into the categories of information listed below. This process builds, meaning as more input is shared, the group will be continually getting closer to solutions. The natural process is to move from Goals, to Facts and Needs, and then to Solutions.

What can you expect when you participate in the community input sessions? Each session is structured with a presentation to set the agenda and objectives for each meeting, and to provide a recap of where the previous sessions have left off. Then, attendees will break into groups to have a facilitated discussion. Each group reports back their findings to the larger group. The evenings will conclude with next steps, and a summary of the evening’s events.