Some of the classrooms at Ackerman Middle School's Lee campus have no walls or doors.

The classrooms were originally designed in the 1970s to be an open school. Because classrooms have portable walls, there are no doors.

"It's just our way of life; we just deal with it," said Ackerman principal Mike Zagyva. "But, of course, it would be nice to have some permanent walls and doors."

The carpets at both the Lee and main campus also needs to be replaced, Zagyva said.

He said it's important that the 25-year-old carpet be replaced now so dry rot doesn't occur.

Sixth-grade teacher Debbie Barber said duct tape covers the tears in the gold and orange carpet. The tape causes students to repeatedly trip over the rough edges.

"It's just falling apart," Barber said. "And vacuuming makes it even worse; it always gets caught in the thread."

All these problems will be solved if the proposed $30.8 million bond measure passes. The Canby School District has submitted a maintenance bond and seeks voter approval on May 16.

Canby School District Business Manager Don Staehely said approximately $3.3 million of the $30.8 million bond would be used for maintenance repairs at Ackerman's main campus and its Lee campus.

Also, the gym floors on both campuses need to be resurfaced. The main gym floor was designed to last 20 years in 1969. In 1989, it was resurfaced to last five more years.

"Now, the concrete is starting to show," Zagyva said. "You can only resurface the floor once."

Ackerman seventh-grade science teacher Sharon Terry said the bond money will remodel two seventh-grade science classrooms.

The classrooms have no lab stations, one sink, no gas jets and limited electrical outlets. Students currently use alcohol burners at their desks, instead of Bunsen burners.

Terry said since there is only one sink, beakers are used as a water source during experiments, which makes for a lot of spills.

"We always have to mop after science class," she said. "I would just like to see us have a real lab station where all the tools are available."

Zagyva said the bond money also would provide better lighting for special night events. He said currently there is not adequate lighting for safe access between the school and parking lot.

Leaky roofs are another concern at Ackerman.

Barber said one of the classrooms has a hole in the ceiling where the tiles had to be taken out so they wouldn't get moldy.

"We've Band-Aided so many things," Barber said. "We're at the point that we need surgery."

Other maintenance needs include expanding the cafeteria with an outdoor covered eating area, replacing the main gym bleachers, adding lockers to the boys and girls locker rooms, installing sidewalks between buildings and from the west parking lot, adding accessible shower to meet ADA requirements, replacing three drinking fountains, adding urinals to the locker rooms, adding an irrigation well and installing underground irrigation, adding an electronic door locking system for student safety, replacing heating and ventilation systems, and upgrading technology.

Students, officials, parents and citizens had the chance to voice their opinions about their community last week at Canby's first Youth Summit.

The purpose of the summit was to assess resources and define needs for the community's youth. The all-day summit focused on five areas - health and safety, education, employment in the 21st Century, recreation and community feelings.

The morning session was dedicated to sixth-through-12th-grade students at Canby High, Ackerman, Carus and Ninety-One. The 3-6 p.m. afternoon session was held for businesses, agencies and community members and the 7-10 p.m. evening session was aimed at students, parents and citizens in general.

A total of about 50 people showed up at both the afternoon and evening sessions held in the high school commons.

The idea was to compare student and adult responses to create a gap analysis.

"This information will help us build a master plan and work groups," said Canby Mayor Scott Taylor at the afternoon session.

The data gathered at the Youth Summit, led by the Canby School District's new youth liaison Robin Adcock, will help in writing grants to create a better environment and more opportunities for youth.

"We want to provide an environment so every child can reach their fullest dream in its fullest capacity," Taylor said.

"We don't want to stand in the way of that. What can we do to create a community that benefits all of us?"

Adcock said although she was disappointed by the low turnout, she was pleased with those who did show.

"They expressed great thoughts and had wonderful concerns," Adcock said. Canby School District Superintendent Deborah Sommer said she feels the Youth Summit is a powerful vehicle to give a variety of people an opportunity to express themselves.

Volunteer officials and community members met earlier in the day with more than 600 students to find out what they thought of their community and the changes they would like to see in Canby.

"I was very impressed how the kids mirrored what many people in the community think," Adcock said. "They really like the sense of a small town community. A common theme they had was a concern that Canby is growing and farmland is being taken away. That means changes, and they didn't like that."

Although many students said they want to keep their community small, they did express approval of the new Fred Meyer.

"They said they're just happy to have a place to buy their CDs," Sommer said.

Students said they would like to see a movie theater go up, school to start later and more local jobs for teen-agers. They also expressed interest in more technology-based classes at school, and some students said they would like teachers to focus more on individual learning styles.

"The young people here are of a very high caliber," Sommer said. "Their answers were interesting and profound. They were very astute about the fact that the community is in transition, they talked about the positives and negatives of growth."

Taylor said he heard interesting responses when students were asked, "What value do adults find in you?"

"One student I heard responded that he was a tax deduction," Taylor said.

Sommer said regardless of the turnout, she is pleased with the results. "I think we modeled something important," Sommer said.

"We will now be looking at the commonalities and data to use to apply for grant dollars from outside agencies to help fund new programs. We can't be aggressive about getting grant money if we don't have data."

Community members are encouraged to join a work group to explore ideas on how to achieve the desired goals. Work groups will meet from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, at the high school commons. For more information call Adcock at 266-2633.