The Vista Online - Design students will turn school gym into library

The Vista Online - Design students will turn school gym into library: "UCO’s Charles Evans Studio is designing a library in Westwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City for their semester project.

Laci Lackey, director of interior design, said the studio is made up of four students.

“They’re picked by the faculty and it’s for them to get experience,” Lackey said. “All the work we do is for non-profit organizations or organizations that can’t pay.”

Sandy Futrell, Westwood Elementary librarian, said a new principal came to the school last year and made reading the main focus for the students.

“The majority of the kids in our school are probably two grade levels behind as far as reading goes,” Futrell said. “It’s because they come from a different culture and their parents speak Spanish.”

Futrell said about 85 percent of the student population is Hispanic. She said this is the first year the school has been off the “at-risk list,” which is based on reading levels, in four years.

Futrell said the room the UCO students will design was actually an old gym. She said the new principal made the decision to use the gym, located in the center of the building, as a library.

“Reading is our focus and we’re so far behind,” Futrell said. “So, it needs to be in the center of our school.”

Futrell said she and the principal decided to design the library to make a fun and encouraging atmosphere to get students to read."