Photo By Charlie Maib | Vice Adm. Yancy Lindsey, Commander, Navy Installations Command, Rear Adm. Carl A....... read more read more
SASEBO, Japan – With the snip of a ribbon, a newly constructed and partially renovated E.J. King Middle High School was officially declared ready to teach during a ceremony here on Commander Fleet Activities Sasebo, September 21.
The ceremony, attended by such luminaries as Vice Adm. Yancy Lindsey, Commander, Navy Installations Command, Rear Adm. Carl A. Lahati, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Japan / Navy Region Japan, Capt. David J. Adams, Commander, CFA Sasebo, Mr. Thomas Brady, Director, Department of Defense Education Activity, and Ms. Lois J. Rapp, DoDEA Pacific Director for Student Excellence, drew throngs of school children and teachers excited to be part of this moment in Sasebo History.
Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Japan Engineer District also attended; as well as a delegation from NIPPO Corporation, including company president Yoshikazu Yoshikawa, JED’s partner contractor for the construction project.
“The [building] is absolutely gorgeous. The renovation and construction… very difficult to do. It couldn’t have been done without teamwork and cooperation from the Department of Defense [who have invested] $4 billion dollars in DoDEA schools all around the world,” said Brady during his opening remarks. “And it couldn’t have been done without partnership from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and [NIPPO] who constructed buildings during COVID… which I think is a remarkable task.”
The original building housing E.J. King High School was constructed in 1930. It was completely demolished and rebuilt, transforming it into one of DoDEA’s “21st century schools,” envisioned as educational beacons of light preparing modern students for the world of tomorrow.
The E.J. King project is actually connected to another Japan District project: the construction of Sasebo Elementary School, which sits a hundred meters or so away from the entrance to the preparatory building. Even though Sasebo Elementary’s construction began years before E.J. King’s, advanced coordination had to take place between the two projects because the sewer and water infrastructure between the two separate buildings is shared.
“It was worth the wait!” Declared Ms. Rapp, acknowledging the challenges that arose from conducting a $37+ million-dollar renovation and construction effort in the midst of a global pandemic. “I want to recognize Mr. John Oshima… he worked hand and glove with me, with our DoDEA Headquarters partners to make sure that you had this beautiful building.”
John Oshima is JED’s Navy/Marine/DoDEA/DLA Branch Chief. Although currently working out of District headquarters in Camp Zama, Japan, some 723 miles (1,163 kilometers) to the northeast of Sasebo, the Engineer’s personal connection to the E.J. King project runs deep.
“I was a Project Manager for this] project when it began back in 2012,” Oshima explains. “When I first got that assignment to work with DoDEA, it was kind of full circle.”
Full circle because in Oshima’s eyes the Engineer that he is today is a direct result of the DoDEA education system. A military brat, his formative years were spent on Okinawa bases. Now, being able to work on projects that affect the lives that echo his has become a very personal thing. So personal, that he finds himself often grappling with the ways in which education has changed over the years.
“I like the old layout,” Oshima sheepishly confesses. “Sometimes you can’t let things go. When you look at how you were educated, you just like that old setup. And when you see the [21st century DoDEA schools] you think that this is like a college campus.”
Gone are the dark, dreary hallways marked regularly by a door that leads to square room, each with four or so windows on one wall, a chalkboard on another. The kind of red-brick school that so many people experienced during the last century.
DoDEA’s 21st century schools are open concept. They have windows to spare, welcoming the outside inside the classroom. They’re modular, designed to be rearranged to meet the needs of the class. There are smartboards that automatically connect to student’s personal computers, allowing them to beam their assignments directly to the entire class. E.J. King even has what the Japanese call kusari-toi, or rain chain gutters, existing at the intersection of function and whimsy.
“A lot of these [E.J. King] students, when they go back to the states and they go to college, they’re always going to remember living overseas having already experienced this environment,” he reflects.
“It’s never going to be perfect [for me]; you’re always going to have some self-reflection of how things should be done, but when you step out of work and into the environment [you’ve created] you know why you’re here.”
E.J. King Middle High School will be home to some 275 students and is expected to serve the Sasebo community for years to come.
| Date Taken: | 09.21.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 09.21.2022 04:07 |
| Story ID: | 429752 |
| Location: | SASEBO, SAGA, JP |
| Web Views: | 508 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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