October 28-30, 2026 |
Kansas City, MO

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Tara Kalis

Tara Kalis

PrincipalPark Hill School District

Dr. Tara Kalis is principal at Russell Jones Education Center, where she taught from 2007-2015. Dr. Kalis also taught at Congress Middle School from 2003-2007, and named was the Park Hill Teacher of the Year in 2011. Dr. Kalis received her elementary education degree with a minor in special education from Missouri Western State University. After two years of teaching, she went to Texas A&M University to earn her master's degree in educational psychology with an emphasis in low-incidence disabilities. Dr. Kalis then completed her doctorate in special education from the University of Kansas and an educational specialist degree from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Tara has been a fierce advocate for both her students and her staff to receive the same opportunities, training, curriculum, and materials as every other school within the district.

Thu Oct 29•2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Designing Calm, Connected Learning: A Post-Occupancy Exploration

Thoughtful design transformed daily learning for students with significant emotional and behavioral needs at Russell Jones Education Center (RJC). A d

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Thoughtful design transformed daily learning for students with significant emotional and behavioral needs at Russell Jones Education Center (RJC). A day-treatment program in the Park Hill School District, RJC’s intentionally designed spaces can diffe

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Thoughtful design transformed daily learning for students with significant emotional and behavioral needs at Russell Jones Education Center (RJC). A day-treatment program in the Park Hill School District, RJC’s intentionally designed spaces can differentiate between chaos and connection. Discover how the district and design team honored the complex user needs during a recent addition/renovation. Investigate post-occupancy data ranging from staff

…

Thoughtful design transformed daily learning for students with significant emotional and behavioral needs at Russell Jones Education Center (RJC). A day-treatment program in the Park Hill School District, RJC’s intentionally designed spaces can differentiate between chaos and connection. Discover how the district and design team honored the complex user needs during a recent addition/renovation. Investigate post-occupancy data ranging from staff workflows and student engagement to acoustics, illumination, circulation, and safety–all grounded in direct feedback from teachers, staff, and students.  

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EDsession (60 minutes in classrooms)Session TypeTRACK 2: Designing for the Human Experience — Wellbeing, inclusion, safety, and human performanceSession Track
Chris Daniels
Chris DanielsEducational Engagement Leader, Hollis + Miller Architects
Tara Kalis
Tara KalisPrincipal, Park Hill School District
Tags:Group D
Allow Registration:No
Capacity Unlimited:No
Indicate how the topic is applicable to Health, Safety, Welfare (HSW) Design credits.:N/A
Learner Engagement:Panel with Q&A session (initial starter questions ranging from staff involvement in the design experience, designing the space vs. living in the space post-occupancy, as well as asking audience participants for trends which they are seeing in their individual districts.)
Learning Objective 1:Understand the unique design needs of day-treatment settings. Participants will identify key factors shaping classroom and overall school layout in a specialized program. Factors could include student age range, behavioral and emotional needs, supervision requirements, safety considerations, acoustics, circulation, and access to administration.