District presents preliminary design

The proposed middle school and the high school will be two separate buildings.

This was one of the points that Scituate School Superintendent John McCarthy made clear during his presentation of the preliminary design of the new middle school building before the Scituate School Committee on Monday (Sept. 8).

The project would involve building a new 139,500 square-foot facility as an addition to the south side of Scituate High School that would serve 710 students in grades 6 through 8.

"The plan will be fully developed by October and there will be a series of public meetings scheduled throughout the months of October and November to give the community an opportunity to see the project and have their questions answered," McCarthy said.

He did touch on several issues during his presentation.

Entrances: The proposed new middle school will be attached to Scituate High School creating a 6 to 12 campus. Each school will be separate and distinct, with its own administration and school entrances.

Possible areas for new playing fields: The new middle school will be located partially on the site of the existing field hockey field. This field is used for practices and some games, as well as youth soccer. In addition, a proposed softball field could not be built due to the location of the new school. The area currently being looked at for potential future fields is to the north of the current baseball field, adjacent to Cushing School. This site presents challenges as it has quite a slope, however is dry compared to other land adjacent to the site. Another possibility for fields would be land to the south of the vernal pool currently occupied by the police/fire/town hall complex. This land would only be available if the new public safety complex is built and town hall relocates to the vacated Gates school. A third option would be the Ellis Estate site, however this land is not on campus and is therefore less desirable for school use.

Teams/Pods: The team structure at Gates would continue at the new middle school. The current facility makes it difficult for teams to function in an interdisciplinary manner. As a traditional 1900s high school, Gates is more of a departmental model building than a team model. The new middle school will have six teams clustered in pods. All teams will have a variety of teaching spaces called learning studios, small group rooms for student collaboration, a teacher planning suite, and a large open common area for students and classes to gather and collaborate.

First floor plan: There will be three teams located on the first floor, one for each grade level. The Grade 6 team will be somewhat separated from 7 and 8 by the administrative offices and main lobby. Even though each team is self-contained, all of the first floor will have a visual connection from one end of the building to the other. In between the seventh and eighth grade space is a two story presentation and exhibition hall. This will be an area for students to gather for presentations, guest speakers, and the like. The first floor will also feature a large art studio and da Vinci studio (fabrication lab), as well as two science labs. There will be accessibility to the large arts plaza, an area between the current high school and new middle school. The arts plaza will serve as an outdoor teaching area, as well as a place for students to gather formally and informally. To the south of the building will be additional outdoor teaching spaces, with the vernal pool turned into a wetlands environmental studies lab. Special education classrooms will be spread throughout the building ensuring students have a strong connection to an academic team. Rounding out the first floor is the administrative offices, located at the main entrance to the school. Visitors to the school will enter through a secure vestibule and will not have access to the school without being cleared by the office.

Second floor plan: The second floor somewhat mirrors the first, with three team areas, one for each grade level. The teams will be stacked by grade, with one grade level team directly above the other. There will be a dedicated stairway for each grade allowing for direct access between floors. In addition, skylights and openings to the first floor will allow for an abundance of natural light and will visually connect teams. The secondfloor will feature two large art studios and another da Vinci studio. The guidance offices will be located directly above the administrative offices. These offices will be connected by an internal stairway. Rounding out the second floor is small café and student gathering commons. We envision this as a place for students to gather after school to do homework, collaborate with their peers, and get extra help.

Cafeteria: The cafeteria will be a large, light-filled two-story space capable of feeding half the school at one seating. This will eliminate the need for three lunches and allow for a more civilized school dining experience. At one end of the dining commons will be a Hellerup Stairway, a large multi-functional stairway leading to the second floor. This stairway will serve the dual purpose as seating for performances or presentations held in the dining commons, ensuring that one of the largest spaces in the school, the cafeteria, could function as something more than just a place for students to eat.

Lockers: Lockers will be located in the team areas, providing students easy access during the school day. Lockers will be double stacked, one on top of the other, and wide enough to accommodate student backpacks and personal belongings.

"Library without walls": There will not be a designated library/media center. The school will use the space designated for this purpose by MSBA to create the team common areas. The concept of a 21st Century library in schools is changing with the advent of technology. No longer will students go to a library, but rather the library will come to them in their team area. The school will still employ a library/media specialist to ensure students have access to the resources they need when they need them.

Teachers not owning classrooms: Teachers will not have their own classroom. Each teacher will have their home base, or office, in one of the six teacher planning suites. The philosophy behind this is (1) to ensure teachers collaborate with one another to plan interdisciplinary units of study, and (2) to allow teachers to change rooms depending on the lesson of the day or week. For example, a teacher employing a more traditional approach might use one of the smaller learning studios, while a teacher doing collaborative project-based learning lesson might opt for a larger space. It is expected that teachers will use a variety of spaces to differentiate their instruction and engage all learners.

Art areas and auditoriums: The current undersized high school auditorium will be renovated into a middle school black box theater. The space will have movable walls enabling the room to function as one large space, or three smaller spaces for band, chorus, and drama/theatre. This space will be located directly off of the dining commons. Because the high school auditorium is being used in the middle school project, a new, appropriately sized performing arts center will be built adjacent to the high school gymnasium and back parking lots. This auditorium will provide a much-needed space for school and community performances and meetings.

The high school will also get a relocated arts wing since the current space will be taken over for the new middle school. This arts wing will feature four art studios, a darkroom, and an open collaborative commons space. The wing, located in the former ECC wing, will have direct access to the outdoor arts plaza.

A new middle school gymnasium will be built, giving us three full court gyms on the campus for school and community use. A separate movement studio is also part of the plan and will feature a space for dance, aerobics, and other physical activities.

"The final steps are to develop and approve a Project Scope and Budget and submit this plan to the MSBA (Massachusetts School Building Authority) by Oct. 2 for anticipated approval at their Nov. 19 board meeting," he said. "After that it will be on the ballot for consideration by the citizens of Scituate. If all goes according to plan, we are anticipating a September 2017 school opening."

Follow reporter Ruth Thompson on Twitter @scituateruth