Student-Made 'Blackout' Curtains Installed at First D365U School

Caption: Kathleen Neri and Jessika Cannon prepare for the installation of “blackout” curtains they and some of their fellow S.T.E.P. students made for classroom doors in Brooks Middle School.

Once a mainstay in homes during World War II, maintenance staff at Brooks Middle School began installing more than 100 “blackout” curtains made by Valley View School Dist. 365U’s made by students in the Secondary Transition Experience Program.

Instead of blocking out light to prevent enemy planes from bombing cities, the blackout curtains will be lowered over classroom windows in the event of a school lockdown.

Brooks is the first Dist. 365U K-12 school to have the curtains for all of its classrooms. The curtains are designed to be tied open during normal classroom activities but can easily be untied in the event of a lockdown so no one can see into or out of the classroom.

The students have been working on curtains since the fall for what will eventually be 1,500 curtains after securing several sewing machines on loan.

“I’m really proud of our students for taking on such a large project,” S.T.E.P. teacher Sandra Jones said when the project began. “It’s very challenging. But they enjoy doing it. And they’re learning some great life skills.”

In addition to handling the sewing and arranging for distribution, the students go on shopping trips to buy materials, match prices at different stores to look for the best deals and use coupons to save the school district some money.

Students also build their problem-solving skills, and learn about math and budgeting.

“A lot of planning went into this,” said Mike Lopez, director of facility operations said. “Our building maintenance guys had to measure every door window in the district and our secretary, Julie Hansen, had to compile and organize all of the data. That was a big process in itself.”

Lopez said the next school to receive the curtains will be B.J. Ward Elementary School followed by Humphrey Middle School.