NHS

Expansion

Plans

Reviewed

By Martha Coville

The Board of Education reviewed the proposed Newtown High School expansion plans at a special “workshop” meeting prior to its regularly scheduled board meeting January 8. The architectural firm Fletcher Thompson presented its architectural and landscape drawings, and Business Director Ronald Bienkowski explained the deadlines the Connecticut State Department of Education has imposed on the project.

Several other elected officials attended the session, including nine of the 12-member Legislative Council. District teachers, PTA members, and residents were also present, as was Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze, and board members, including Harry Waterbury and James Gaston.

The workshop came days before the Board of Education presents its five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to the Board of Finance. The CIP, which will be formally presented to the Board of Finance on January 15, includes the cost of the high school renovation.

Officials and residents alike listened to Fletcher Thompson architect Daniel Davis and Joe Costa, the firm’s project director for its Education Practice Group. Barry Blades, from the Landscape Architecture firm of Blades and Goven, explained changes planned for school’s site.

Mr Costa began the presentation and said that Fletcher Thompson is presently in the third of three design phases, the construction document phase. He also said that the project is currently on budget, and meets all the education specifications required by state and federal laws.

Following Mr Costa’s upbeat news, Mr Blades provided more detailed information about changes made to the traffic flow around the high school. The high school will be expanded to accommodate 2,022 students, for a total of 302 more students than the current enrollment. Because the current roadway entrance to the high school already complicates the congestion at the intersection of Wasserman Way and Berkshire Road, the State Department of Transportation (DOT) has mandated that the entrance be moved. The DOT is also concerned about the planned revamping of the I-84 interchange off of Wasserman Way. The entrance to the renovated high school must therefore be moved about 200 feet away from the intersection.

Mr Blades also said that the expanded high school should include a secondary access route, to make sure that emergency vehicles can reach the school. Many school designs include a second entrance, although Newtown High School does not, at present, have one. Mr Blades has therefore designed an emergency access road, beginning at Oak View Road, where a small handicap parking lot is currently located, running behind the baseball backstops, to the auxiliary parking lot behind the school. The road will be used for emergency vehicles only, and will be gated at both ends. Construction vehicles will also use the road during the renovation.

To accommodate the projected enrollment, the new design also includes two additional parking lots, for an addition of 86 new parking spaces. A new track and a new football field with artificial turf will also be built, “essentially” in the same space as before.

Following Mr Blades’ presentation, Mr Davis put the architectural drawings for the proposed expansion onto an easel and explained each planned change to the audience. The expansion itself is essentially a new wing; its addition to high school will create an L-shaped building. The new wing is designed primarily as a “ninth grade wing,” although it also includes spaces and classrooms to be used by the student body as a whole. Although the present building is two stories high, the new wing will include a third floor. The building’s main doorway entrance will remain the same, but the new wing will include another large entrance.

Board of Education chairperson Elaine McClure said students walking into the high school from the main lobby will “go straight back, as if they’re going to the gym.” The new wing will be accessible to the main school through the space currently occupied by the small concrete courtyard near the gym. Mr Blades said that the new addition will also be accessible in three other ways. On the second floor, a “bridge spanning the courtyard” will connect the current music suite to the new ninth grade wing. And in the crook of the “L,” the broken elevators will be fixed to allow handicap access to the new third floor. Next to them, a “wide, circular staircase” will be added. Mr Davis said the staircase will be “a pleasant place to travel in.”

Mr Davis said that “the lions’ share of the construction is this ‘ninth grade’ wing, but it’s also the gymnasium. We’re essentially rebuilding it.” The new space will have a barrel vault over it, so that the ceiling, at its highest point, will be three stories high. The vault serves two purposes: The raised ceiling will be high enough to meet the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s requirements for the height of basketball and volleyball courts, and the vault is also consistent with Mr Davis’ architectural philosophy.

“The new gym will be naturally lit,” he said, “as opposed to being a concrete box.” He said, “The major design philosophy is to allow and control natural light,” into the building. “We’re trying not to create any ‘dead ends’ visually in the building.” From the outside, the new wing will look like a long expanse of glass. Inside, classrooms, and especially the gymnasium and the new cafeteria, will be well lit with natural sunlight. Mr Davis called the design “pleasant and cheerful. In a way, it will be a transformation for parts of the building.”

He said that controlling natural light means that the new classrooms will face north, so as not to be too brightly lit. Rooms with southern exposure will have “sun screen devices,” again, to prevent blinding light from entering them.

Floor By Floor

Mr Davis flipped through his drawings to explain the planned changes one room at a time. At NHS, teachers do not use their classrooms for preparing lessons. Instead, they share a large office, full of cubicles. Mr Davis said that this is now “common practice” at high schools. The teachers’ office will be moved to the first floor of the new renovation, as will the administrative suite.

The new first floor will therefore include the three-story gym, the teachers’ and administrative offices, and finally, a much needed second cafeteria. The cafeteria will actually be two stories high, with windows flooding it with light. At 3,500 square feet, the room will be twice as big as the present cafeteria, and provide seating for about 200 students. Lunch will be served in this room, and in the present cafeteria, so that neither will be overcrowded. Both lunch rooms will have kitchens and warming stations.

The second and third floors of the renovations will add much needed classroom space. There will be 20 new classrooms, each 700 square feet, and five new, slightly larger, science classrooms.

The 25 new classrooms and the new cafeteria will be built from scratch. But the new high school will also include many expanded or renovated spaces.

The school’s “nursery” or child care center will be moved from its present location near the concrete courtyard to the new wing. It will also be enlarged, and include storage space and two classrooms, one for instructing the high school students, and one for child care. The culinary arts suite will also be expanded. The suite will include two rooms, totaling 2,400 square feet. Like the child care center, one room will be used as a classroom, and the second for teachers’ demonstrations.

The nurses’ station, the art studios, and the video production suites will also be renovated. The new wing itself will improve traffic patterns within the school and alleviate corridor overcrowding. Finally, a “green area” will be built on the overhang protecting the building’s front entrance. The green area will be accessible from the science classrooms, and available to science teachers for biology and ecology lessons. Locking doors and a high fence will prevent possible accidents.