Vinson-Owen Holds Final Design Update

They almost made it through the whole meeting without discussing it. But in the end, air conditioning found its way into Monday night's public discussion regarding the new Vinson-Owen school.

The talk was mostly positive from the residents and parents of elementary students who braved the lightning and rain to head over to Vinson-Owen to see the final design of their new school. The project, including the renovations at Parkhurst, will coast approximately $28 million, 40 percent of which will be reimbursed from the state. The Board of Selectmen will have to pass an override at some point over the next few months.

But air conditioning became a major concern for some of the parents at the meeting. Many felt as though air conditioning was a given at the school. The School Committee will have a discussion Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the library in the Lynch School as to what areas of the school will be air-conditioned.

The core areas – library, main office, health, special education rooms, computer room – are the most likely spaces to be air conditioned at this time.

EFPBC member Brendan Driscoll did mention to the crowd that there are other options the school can do instead of conditioning the air in order to make the classrooms cooler. And other parents mentioned with part of the school built into the hill that will create a natural cooling effect.

While the air conditioning discussion ended last night's meeting, the talk of redistricting and the potential size of the school was another concern.

According to Superintendent William McAlduff, there are currently 301 students enrolled at the current school. But even though the new building will have twice the square footage as the current Vinson-Owen, the enrollment should only expand by about 100-120 students.

"One of the important pieces of this project is to allow the district to address the enrollment pressure and redistricting," McAlduff said.

However, the school committee does have the potential to build three more classrooms on the third floor, which could potentially increase the size of the school to a maximum of 480 students.

"The School Committee doesn't have any appetite to add six more classrooms at (the new school)," said School Committee member Chris Nixon. "We have no interest in expanding the enrollment to over 500. We don't want that. The School Committee is only interested in adding those three classrooms if we need it."

The goal will be to start renovating the Parkhurst School, which will be used as swing space, this winter. The construction will be done on that school by the end of the summer and, if all goes according to plan, the new Vinson-Owen school will start being built in the fall of 2011.

McAlduff informed the crowd that once all the constructions is complete, the administrative offices that are currently located at the Lynch school will move to the newly renovated Parkhurst. This will free up another five classrooms at the Lynch school.

"After we finish the renovations at Parkhurst, this will be a town asset," said EFPBC member Bob Deering. "This will have long-term value to the town. We have some work to do there to improve it for swing space, but this will be an important space for the town in the future."

Others were curious as to what will go in place on the top of the hill, around the location of the current building. Right now, the Educational Facilities Planning and Building Committee (EFPBC) said a final decision has not been made. Options range from adding more parking spaces in the area to creating another play-space for the children.

"We have a lot of options as to what to do with that space," Deering said. "No final decision has been made as to what to do. We're still trying to decide."

But many left the meeting satisfied and pleased with the design of the new building.

"We were limited as to what we can do because of the existing conditions at this site," Driscoll said. "This is the best plan we can come up with. There's a lot of open space and it answers all our accessibility issues."

Here are some highlights of the new building:

• Drop-off maximizes flexibility
• Safe pedestrian walkways form Johnson Road
• 68 Parking spaces (nearly double the amount now)
• Opportunity on the slope behind the school for additional parking or play space
• Separate younger and older play structure
• Maintain green space at Johnson Road
• Separate K-1 drop-off/pick-up area

Below is what will be new to the school:

• 3 Core academic spaces for K-students up from 2 at the current building
• 18 classrooms for grades 1 – 5, up from 12 at the current VO
• 1 Computer room, the current school lacks a computer room
• Doubling the amount of special-education rooms from four up to eight
• A slightly larger art and music room (2,575 square-feet, up from 2,050)
• The media center will grow from 980 square-feet to 2,560
• A 6,415 square-foot cafeteria. The students currently eat lunch in their classrooms
• Doubling the size of the health room from 230 square-feet to 510
• The custodial and maintenance staff will have their own 2,020 square-foot space, currently they don't have one
• Overall, the current building has a gross floor area of 33,140 square feet, the new building will be 74,774.