Background:
The Millbrook Central School District Board of Education asked the Citizens Facilities Committee to become familiar with recent facilities projects in at least one other school district.  The committee decided to visit neighboring districts whose facilities projects addressed issues similar to those faced by our district.  In determining which districts to visit, we considered proximity, student enrollment, state aid ratio, past and present grade configuration and facility/program solution implemented.  The committee opted to visit the Stissing Mountain Jr. Sr. High School (Pine Plains School District-bordering MCSD to the north) and the Dover Jr. Sr. High School (Dover School District-bordering MCSD to the east).  These districts faced grade configuration issues similar to those of MCSD.  Both projects involved the building of a substantial addition to and some modification of an existing building to create a middle school environment within the existing high school building, but distinct from the high school environment (school within a school concept – identified by the Alden Space Committee.)  The CFC also chose to visit Pawling Central School District, a neighboring district whose state aid ratio is most similar (of the three) to that of the MCSD.  We visited the recently completed Pawling Middle School.

Pine Plains

The CFC visited Stissing Mountain Jr. Sr. High School on April 28, 2003.  The Superintendent of Schools, Richard Mahar, escorted the committee on a tour and was joined by the Middle School Principal, Robert Hess, for a discussion of the project.

ENROLLMENT AND DISTRICT STRUCTURE:
The Pine Plains School District has about 1470 students.  The District currently has 3 schools: two K-5 schools and a Jr. Sr. high school.  The school district is geographically large.  The Jr. Sr. high school houses about 830 students with 380 students in grades 6-8 (the middle school) and 450 in grades 9-12.  The middle school has 5 sections per grade level.  The first year the new middle school was occupied was school year 2002-2003.  The district formerly had 2 schools of grades K-6 and one grade 7-12 Jr. Sr. high school.

THE FACILITIES:
The Jr. Sr. high school is 150,000 square feet; the new middle school addition is about 50,000 square feet.  The addition cost $10.25 million with 56.8% state aid.  The addition was built WITHOUT a bond issue.  The middle school has a dedicated gym, but shares one half of a split cafeteria and the library with the senior high school.  The floors in high traffic areas- hallways and entryways are terrazzo floors.  The floor of the new middle school gymnasium is a composite material, which allowed a savings of about $60,000 over the cost of a wood floor.  The locker rooms have portioned shower stalls to allow privacy in showering.  The new addition was built to withstand the addition of a second floor.

THE PROGRAM:
The district currently has 4 principals and 2 deans of students, who are middle and high school teachers with stipends to perform the additional duties.  The attachment of the middle school to the Sr. high school allows accelerated learners in 8th grade to go from the middle school to the high school.  The middle school configuration allows accelerated learners in 6th grade to jump to 8th grade.  The middle school teachers are subject teachers but they also bridge all subjects to enable them to be part of the whole program and to be in touch with each student as whole child.  This allows for the kids to transition from the structured, one teacher environment in elementary school to the different teachers for different subjects of high school.  Formerly the teachers were teaching grades 7-8 as well as Sr. high school classes.  The addition of a middle school allows a separation of middle school students and teachers from Sr. high school students and teachers.

NOTES & COMMENTS:

The superintendent hired a separate architect, separate from the project architects, to study the plans and monitor the work.  This became a “check” of the project architect’s plans and saved the district about $1,000,000.  The separate architect took out the “fluff” from the project’s original plans.



Schedules run a school.  If the Jr. and Sr. high school try to combine a schedule, the Jr. high school will be affected by the high school schedule and vice versa.



For information on middle school concepts visit the NY middle school association www.nysmsa.org and the national middle school association www.nmsa.org.



The timeline of the project was as follows.  The Pine Plains School District Board of Education began discussions about the philosophy and need for a separate middle school in 1995.  In 1997 the BOE decided to move forward on the development of a middle school.  Bob Hess was an elementary school principal in the district from 1989-1998.  In July 1998 Bob Hess was offered the position of middle school principal.  The BOE reduced the impact of the additional principal to taxpayers by not replacing a retiring assistant principal in the high school and by maneuvering some other positions in the district.  During the 1998-1999 school year the BOE educated the community about the middle school concept.  This involved discussions of architect plans and the numbers involved in building.  At the same time, Bob Hess developed a middle school program.  Although it was difficult with two 6th grades in different schools and on different schedules from the 7th and 8th grades, Mr. Hess was able to develop a middle school program.  He changed the report cards to an automated system for grades 6-8.  He had the teachers meet as a team as much as possible.  In the fall of 1999 a proposition to build a middle school passed.  Construction began in summer 2000; the bulk of the building took place during 2001-2002.  There were many delays from state aid paperwork (everyone was taking advantage of the 10% state building aid during that time.)  The middle school occupied the new building for the first time in September 2002.

The CFC visited the Dover Jr. Sr. High School on April 30, 2003.  The high school principal, Michael Tierney, hosted the committee in a tour and discussion of the project.

ENROLLMENT AND DISTRICT STRUCTURE:
The Dover School District has about 1800 students.  The District currently has 3 schools: one K-2 school, one grades 3-5 school and the Jr. Sr. high school.  The Jr. Sr. high school has about 1080 students with 480 in grades 6-8 (the middle school) and 600 in grades 9-12.  The district formerly had 2 elementary schools, one containing grades K-2, one containing grades 3-6 and the Jr. Sr. high school containing grades 7-12.

THE FACILITIES:
The addition cost $22.5 million with 73% state aid.  It was voted down once before approval.  The expansion involved the addition of an auditorium, gym and music and technology rooms at one end of the existing building and about 26 classrooms at the other end of the building.  The 650-seat auditorium and the library are shared by the middle school and Sr. high school.  The expansion included additions as well as tearing down and replacement of some parts of the existing building.  The new addition doubled the size of the former school.  The project included upgrade and maintenance of the old building: two boilers were replaced and the septic system was expanded.  The project took 1.5 years from breaking ground in 1996.

THE PROGRAM:
The Jr. Sr. high school program includes a Jr. Sr. high school principal (Mike Tierney), a middle school and a high school dean of students and an assistant principal, a total of 4 administrators.  Issues when they embarked on the project included overcrowding in both the 3rd-6th-grade elementary school and in the grade 7-12 high school, and separation of grades 7-8 from grades 9-12.  Some measurable benefits of the project include an increase in ELA scores every year since the completion of the project.

NOTES & COMMENTS:

Teachers should work closely with designers.  Some teachers were short-changed in space because they did not participate in the design phase.



Select contractors with great care (several went “belly up” during project)



Allow sufficient time to build, a rush to complete the project at the end resulted in many compromises.



Be careful trying to “marry” new and old building systems – heating/clocks/etc. VERY DIFFICULT depending on the age of the old system – maybe better to upgrade the old system.  The old and new clock systems do not work well together creating constant problems.

Pawling Middle School

The CFC visited the Pawling Middle School on May 8, 2003.  Only three CFC members were able to attend the tour.  The group was escorted on a tour of the school and engaged in a discussion of the project with Frank Deluca, the superintendent of schools and Dr. Cheryl Thomas, the middle school principal.

ENROLLMENT AND DISTRICT STRUCTURE:
The Pawling School District has 1400 students, 620 students in one elementary school with grades K-4, 480 students in the new grade 5-8 middle school, and 300 in the grades 9-12 high school.  The first year the school was occupied was 2001-2002.  The district formerly had two schools, a K-6 elementary school and a 7-12 Jr. Sr. high school. The rationale for building was increased enrollment.  The kindergarten enrollment was higher in 2002 by 30 students than 2001.  The overcrowding in the existing schools was extensive.  There were more than 30 kids per class, classes were held in hallway and the principal’s office was in a bathroom.

THE FACILITIES:
The new middle school is about 76,000 square feet.  The high school is 77,000 square feet and the elementary school is 90,000 square feet.  The bond for building the new middle school was $15,000,000 but the final cost was $14,700,000.  Pawling school district qualifies for about 20% state aid.  The layout for the new middle school is a split level/2-story design, with special rooms between the lower and upper levels.  The design allows for an open courtyard in the center, which is stepped and nicely landscaped.  The courtyard is used for outdoor theater productions.  The building has 4 wings, one for each of the four grade levels.  The children are not allowed to pass out of their grade-level wing.  Each grade level wing includes a “team room”, which is used for grade-level meetings among teachers and parent conferences.  The building has carpeted classrooms and hallways, which significantly reduces sound and increases comfort.  The building library has a windowed wall and door to technology room, which has 28 computer stations.  The original building design had a separate cafeteria and auditorium.  That bond did not get voter approval and the revised plans combined the two rooms into a “Cafetorium”, which is a hybrid cafeteria and auditorium.  The cafetorium has a room with doors to back of stage to allow for preparation and storage.  The tables in the cafetorium can be separated to become testing tables.  They can also be folded to become benches with backs.  The cafetorium has poor acoustics making concerts and theater productions less than ideal.  The kitchen is designed so that all of the food is prepared internally.  There is no delivery of externally prepared food.  Junk food sales are limited, the drawback of which is that junk food sales keep kitchen budget in the black.  The gym is a 2-station gym.  The locker rooms have no showers (middle school kids don’t use them).  The facilities manager revised the original architect plans to enlarge the cellar space by 6 times, to allow for storage.  There was no additional cost to this enlargement.

THE PROGRAM:
The middle school program has one principal.  The 5th grade program differs from the 6th-8th grades.  Each of the 5th grade sections has two teachers who team-teach that section.  The 5th grade classes make one room switch per day.  Each of the 6-8th grade sections switches classrooms as group for each subject.  This program design allows for a slow transition from the elementary school setting to the departmentalized high school setting.  The entire school starts at 7:40 a.m.  The district has a 2-tiered bus system- the high school and middle school begin and end school earlier than the elementary school.

NOTES & COMMENTS:

Originally the district floated a bond that combined the new middle school with repairs and renovations.  This failed.  The BOE then separated the two and the repairs bond passed before the new school bond.  Repairs included extensive renovation to 1920-1930’s era elementary school.  The original school bond included a separate auditorium and cafeteria, more classes and administrative space.

Facilities manager had architects include 6x more basement space than original plans; architects never design enough storage space.

With the new school, BOE implemented a 5-year maintenance plan.

Total district budget is now $22,000,000

To try to get bond passed, the district brought parents into schools to see the overcrowding.  They recruited parent volunteers for various programs.  The district brought older folks in to see and be a part of the school.  They had a Sr. citizens prom, grandparent’s day and set up bussed tours to both schools.  They engaged the media extensively with local newspaper articles.  The district educated the community about the middle school concept.  The school hired Dr. Thomas as middle school principal before the middle school was actually built.  She set up a middle school program that included team meetings, staff training, and activities with parents, letterhead and a newsletter, essentially developing its own identity even though there was not a middle school.

The community uses the school extensively.  Users include The Pawling Theater Group, the Town of Pawling Recreation Dept., church groups and adult leagues.  This promotes the school as a community resource.

Some construction advice:

• Be sure to include a safe or a vault for locked records.
• Be sure to put in a 6-inch waste line, not 4-inch.  Sneakers, clothing and even books find their way into the plumbing.
• Consider air conditioning throughout the building if possible.  If it is not possible, consider it for common areas such as the cafeteria and auditorium.
• Consider over sizing boilers, electric, and plumbing for expansion.  This could be a big cost savings in the future.
• Consider a pitched or barrel roof.  A flat roof requires constant maintenance.
• Try to get all of the boilers the same make/manufacturer for the entire school system the same so that parts are interchangeable.
• Find a locking system that allows for one common lock.
• Require the teachers to sign the architectural plan.