TAMPA, Fla. — The educational corridor in downtown Tampa’s West Riverfront neighborhood was the focus of the Downtown Breakfast Debriefing Series on Wednesday, highlighting ways education is being expanded in the neighborhood and the challenges that lie ahead.
What You Need To Know
- The educational corridor in downtown Tampa’s West Riverfront neighborhood was the focus of the Downtown Breakfast Debriefing Series
- Ways that education is being expanded in the neighborhood was the center of the presentation
- Tampa Prep’s Kevin Plummer discussed the city’s resources and how they can impact education
Kevin Plummer, head of school for Tampa Preparatory, was the guest speaker.
The growth, innovation and creative design of classrooms has been his mission for the past several years.
“Tampa as a city has some of the greatest resources I have ever seen from arts to athletics to industry,” Plummer said.
From the Straz Center, to the Florida Aquarium and Tampa General Hospital, the opportunities for students at Tampa Prep are becoming more abundant in a part of town changing almost by the day, he said.
“The tying of that partnership between schools and helping kids actually have an authentic peak, if you will, into their futures would be absolutely transformative.”
Evidence of the expansion of education in Tampa’s West Riverfront neighborhood is on full display on campus at Tampa Prep.
A construction project ongoing for 18 months is continuing as school starts for a new year, and new floors of the school’s main building are opening for the first time for students after a big renovation.
“If we are genuinely interested in preparing them for complexities of the future, then you start designing spaces like this,” Plummer said on a tour of campus.
He showed off wide hallways with breakout study areas for students and engaging learning environments inside classrooms.
Each classroom is equipped with dual projectors on both sides of the classrooms, and ergonomic desks on wheels are used by students so they don’t feel stuck in one spot or in one position while learning.
“It just really changes the theatre of the classroom,” Plummer said. “There’s no more stage on a stage, like, you are in it with kids all the time.”
For more information about the Breakfast Debriefing Series, visit the Tampa Downtown Partnership’s website.