Things like the several of seats that are the balance balls/fitness balls available in all classrooms to use on a rotating basis...Standing desks to be used on a rotating basis. Enough room and storage in classrooms.
My son has a classroom in a brand new building to the school specifically built for 4th and 5th graders...so they knew how big the kids are. The classrooms are soooooo tiny. There isn't enough storage and the kids move between two teachers. The kids have to keep all their stuff (heavy books, composition books, folders, everything) in their backpacks because there isn't any storage. So he has to use an expensive rolling backpack because I refuse to let him carry that load on his back.
I also think his elementary school is way too big. I think it all boils down to money but I think there is an optimal size of an elementary school where you can get everyone in and out of the cafeteria, everyone has access to time in the library on a regular basis, you can schedule math and reading to be held at the same time so that you can allow multi-age grouping based on needs. You get to the size of my son's school (1100 plus students) and scheduling is a complete nightmare. So in my ideal setting a school would not be allowed to get that big.
I would also give giant dollar amounts to have some sort of team of experts (including parents, principals, traffic/road designers) design the parking lots, parent pick up car line, bus/day care van loop, way the walkers exit the school. And there should never be a school that has 1100 students that doesn't have a light at the entrance (and where the tiny road meets the main road)...it is just nuts. There was a teacher killed in our area (not our school) being squashed by two cars in parent pick up line. The whole thing is just so scarey and unsafe.
