TOPSHAM
Community input has been collected, now it’s time for the firm charged with developing a new high school for School Administrative District 75 to put it all together.
The second of two visioning sessions took place las week, and now PDT Architects has until the end of July to complete its analysis. At that time, said Lydon Keck, principal at PDT, “we’ll know if we’re going to be recommending whether you stay here and renovate this building, or whether you build a new high school.”
“There’s also a site recommendation that’s going to happen around Aug. 15,” he added.
If PDT is recommending a new high school, the firm will know by then if it can make a new school work on the current site.
After appplying for state approval and funding for many years, SAD 75 officials learned it had gotten the OK to start the 21-step process in April 2014. It still will take time before ground will be broken — any proposed project will need to go to a referendum in the four towns of Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham. The earliest that might happen is likely November 2016.
Keck said the firm has interviewed teachers and talked to students about what they think a school should look like, which will be part of the ongoing work at the high school to determine space allocation. That work will be done Sept. 15.
In early September, he said, “we hope to have meetings in each of the four towns to gather the last bit of information from other townspeople who weren’t able to come to these meetings. And not until that point, when we finish (gathering) all of that input, will we actually start designing.”
Kathy Kahill, PDT’s project manager for this project, pointed to rapidly changing technology as a driver in the design.
“We’re finding that as a result of the way teachers are teaching, the classrooms are becoming much more mobile and students need to be able to move around a lot more,” she said.
Kahill said architects are also finding cafeterias are becoming more cafe-style places kids can move in and out of. They are also finding more informal spaces that can be used for impromptu conversations and collaboration.
PDT Architect Abigail Cram said wireless Internet has allowed students to spread out and be mobile.
“So everywhere within a school is considered a learning environment,” she said.
Members of the public, many of them school board members or employees of the district, broke into groups in the Commons last Thursday to discuss what important components of a future school construction are. They talked about pieces they liked and how a new school or renovation could attract community members of all ages for year-round use. They talked about what education will look like in 15 years and how a new or renovated school can respond to future changes in education. Groups were asked to list their fears about the project, which centered around misinformation and the concern that future decisions will be made based on money rather than the needs of students.
After the visioning session, Keck said the work Thursday was important to the DOE and the SAD 75 school board, so they could have a maximum amount of community input into the design of the school. The information gathered at the public meetings will become part of the criteria for designing the school.
The answers to questions posed, Keck said, will provide “a road map for what kinds of spaces and services should be inside the building and how flexible or rigid the building should be.”
“I think at this stage early in the project it’s important to reach out to all the stakeholders,” he said, “and say, ‘What’s important to you about this project? What are the things you’re worried about? What are the things that you think are important to make this a better community institution to serve all four towns and to serve all age groups and specifically, to make sure that we’re maximizing the opportunities for your children?’”
Information about the project, including agendas, meeting notes and a place to comment can be found on the SAD 75 website at www.link75.org by clicking on the MTA construction icon on the right hand side; or visit construction.link75.org.
dmoore@timesrecord.com
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