Now that the new construction is completed, the master plan calls for the renovation of the entire Bayshore campus. While the exterior of all the buildings will remain intact, the interior spaces will be re-imagined. The goal is to create separate, identifiable spaces for the elementary, middle and high schools. Each of these spaces will include the best of what is known of 21st century academic spaces. The resources currently housed in the Media Center will be decentralized to bring them closer to the students who will be using them.

New flexible spaces to accommodate different teaching and learning styles will be found at all levels. A Da Vinci Studio to promote hands-on art and science activities will be part of the Elementary School renovation, while middle and high school students will benefit from the creation of STEM labs. STEM is a model of education that integrates the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics into a unified curriculum, which enables students to discover how these fields are interrelated. The design of the science labs at each level will support creativity and exploration to help students through independent research and collaborative team efforts.

Phase II is the Bailey Family Center for the Arts with a new 350-seat theater. Devotion to art, music and drama has long been a hallmark of a Holy Names education. The Center will provide for a state of the art teaching and learning environment to enhance the Academy’s STEAM education program that integrates the study of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics into a unified curriculum, and allows the Academy to expand its course offerings for those who want to develop their artistic talents. Course offerings will include both drama and technical theatre, allowing students to offer multi-day production runs and experience a professional theatre experience.

The Academy celebrated the Center's groundbreaking on January 26, 2015. Harvard Jolly Architecture designed the facility and The Beck Group is providing construction management services; construction is expected to last 12 to 14 months. Click here to view the floor plan.

Phase 1 of the project was the construction of a 230-spacre parking garage. The garage enables the school to accommodate more student-drivers and provide additional visitor spaces on the Bayshore side of campus.

To accommodate both the garage and The Bailey Family Center for the Arts, two basketball courts and two tennis courts will be relocated parallel to MacDill Avenue, the site of current student parking.

The Chapel of Blessed Marie Rose Durocher sits at the center of the Academy’s campus. It is important not only as a place of worship, but its location places it both literally and figuratively at the heart of the school. It speaks of the relationship between the Sisters of the Holy Names and those who collaborate with them in carrying out their mission. The facilities master plan includes the addition of a new heritage center. To create museum-quality displays commemorating the Sisters’ contribution to Tampa and the history of the Academy, the Chapel’s ambulatory will be widened and display cases will be added. The Center will include artifacts, photos and other memorabilia that are currently housed in our archives, as well as video displays. It will be a space for alumni to come and reminisce on years past, and one to bring students to educate them on the history of the Sisters and the school.

Thanks to a lead gift of $1 million from Richard Gonzmart (B'67) and Melanie Heiny Gonzmart (A'72), the Center opened in October 2016.

During the summer of 2014, the Academy converted two Media Center computer labs into the Innovation Lab--more commonly referred to as the iLab. The iLab was established as a pilot space, which allows students and faculty to manage space, technology and information to drive their own learning. With the evident success and popularity of the first Innovation Lab, a second iLab, the SYKES Innovation Lab, was created during the summer of 2015 and is located on the second floor of the main building.

The iLabs demonstrate how education and spatial design can work in harmony and how new teaching and learning methods benefit from spaces specifically designed to fit a new model of education. The layout of the labs better meets and personalizes the diverse needs and learning styles of 21st century students. New approaches to curriculum and teaching techniques supported by modern classroom design and technology enable collaboration between students and teachers.

The original Innovation Lab is reserved for middle school use while the SYKES Innovation Lab is dedicated for high school classes. Eight Innovation Fellows from the middle and seven from the high school share the spaces. The Innovation Fellowship provides faculty the support for and challenge to create programs featuring the skills required in students’ future lives. The work of the fellowship responds to the mission and vision of the school, and its purpose is to develop a strong body of classroom exemplars for school experiences rooted in the intellectual standards that the 21st century demands.

Articles and Reports

• American Management Association Critical Skills Survey
• A Parent's Guide to 21st Century Education (Edutopia)
• Don't Just Rebuild Schools--Reinvent Them (Prakash Nair, Education Week)
• Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade (New York Times)
• Havens of Resilience (Nan Henderson, Educational Leadership)
• How Good is Good Enough? (Grant Wiggins, Educational Leadership)
• Need a Job? Invent It. (New York Times Op-Ed)
• Princeton Classes Innovate to Enhance Teaching and Learning (Emily Aronson, Princeton Office of Communications)
• Seven Keys to Effective Feedback (Grant Wiggins, Educational Leadership)
• The Classroom is Obsolete (Prakash Nair, Education Week)
• “Well, Duh!”--Ten Obvious Truths That We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring (Alfie Kohn, American School Board Journal)
• Why Isn't Innovation Taught in the Classroom? (Forbes)

Videos

• FabLab@School (Stanford professor Paulo Blikstein's TEDx video presentation)
• Play, Passion, Purpose (Harvard researcher Tony Wagner's TEDx video presentation)

Short Clips from Tony Wagner's "Creating Innovators"

• A Differently Motivated Generation (Anne Marie Neal, Cisco Systems)
• Innovation and Empathy (David Kelley, IDEO)
• Innovation, Passion and Purpose (Amanda Alonzo, Lynnbrook High)
• The Value of Failure (Amanda Alonzo, Lynnbrook High)

Interested in additional resources? Email Emily Wise for further research, book suggestions and videos as suggested by AHN faculty and staff.