The back-to-school hustle means different things to different people. Here at SMM, it’s often an opportunity to help overcrowded schools provide all of their students with safe, comfortable classrooms, built to order.
Understanding overflow
To understand this unique scenario, it’s important to know that year-round school programs typically estimate their impending population at the start of the calendar year, in January or February. Based on enrollment growth trends, new facilities orders are placed in advance to be completed by August or September. When outside factors result in an overabundance of new students, the first week of school is the first opportunity to gauge estimated enrollment against real-time capacity. And unfortunately, to make sure that site-built classrooms aren’t over capacity, “miscounted” students often wind up in a temporary classroom in a gymnasium or multi-purpose building.
Relief in 30 days
The quickest and easiest solution that SMM provides are ready-to-go classroom buildings, which can be operational in 30 days. We keep several in our fleet for this exact purpose, so that we can provide portable classrooms within an incredibly short time frame. There are three types of classrooms in our fleet: single-classroom buildings (built to serve 20-22 students), double-classroom buildings (built to serve 40-45 students), and multi-classroom buildings (multiple configurations, serving 20-22 per unit). Each is constructed with the same standards of hardiness to weather the four seasons and provide year-round comfort.
Solutions for years to come
While no parent wants to see their child relegated to a temporary classroom, the silver lining is that modular classrooms can be kept on site and used for numerous purposes well beyond the temporary relief period. Most schools we’ve served typically wind up keeping their units for at least 1–2 years. And because of their built-to-last construction, when a given unit’s time at a particular school has come to an end, it rejoins our fleet, ready to provide relief to a new school in need.
For more about modular construction and schools, read here.
