Three Options Presented for Galvin Middle School Project

There are currently three options on the table for the future of the Galvin Middle School: An addition that would preserve much of the school's common spaces such as gym, library and auditorium; a large addition of a brand-new "classroom wing" that also preserves the auditorium; or a completely new school that seeks to group students together into learning clusters to create more of a community feel.

All three options were presented at the first public forum of the Galvin Middle School Building Authority Commmittee and Permanent Building Committee on September 19th.

Option 1: Gut Renovation/ Limited Addition
This design option would switch around the front of the school from Main Street, to the North Ave side, allowing for better traffic flow for pickup and drop off. It would also allow for the soccer fields to basically stay where they are now.

Most of the public spaces would be kept exactly as they are now, and most of the classrooms would remain as they are now. The main changes would be an expanded kitchen, an expansion of classrooms, administrative space, a new main entrance, a new gym, and a new music space.

The drawbacks of this plan include significant student disruption during the construction process, as there is no where to put students while the school is dealing with construction on all sides of the building. It also preserves the school's poor layout for the superintendent's educational concepts of team teaching, and keeps common areas far away from each other, causing students to have to travel pretty far every day to reach the common areas of the school.

Option 2 - Renovate, Preserve Auditorium and Gym Only
This school design would build significant additions onto the existing school but also preserve the 900-seat auditorium that serves as an essential civic space for much of the community. It would also preserve the existing gym, while adding another smaller gym.  This design also reorients the main entrance away from Main Street, and allows for several entrances/exits.

The new portions of the school would be a new library, new cafeteria, a new small gym, and a 5/6th grade and 7/8th grade academic wing.

Cons involved in this design option include splitting up the existing space for soccer fields into two separate fields on separate sides of the property, and disruptions to students during construction.

Option 3 - New School
There are actually three different versions of new school designs, but all three are similar in that they would switch where the current school sits with the current position of the soccer fields - basically a flip-flop scenario. This way, a new school could be built behind the existing building while students remain in the old building until the new school is ready to go.

This option would allow for the configuration of the school to be set up exactly as educators and administrators would like, with two cluster wings, one for 5th and 6th grade students and one for 7th and 8th grade students. The gym, auditorium, cafeteria and library would all be connected to one another and would help to support the school's educational vision.

However, an important consideration for building a new school versus preserving the original auditorium is whether or not the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) will approve the construction of a new auditorium.

Typically, the MSBA does not approve funding for auditoriums for middle school buildings, but the Galvin Auditorium plays an important role in the town's civic life, and school and community officials do not want to lose it.

"Our instinct, without knowing for sure and without being able to speak for them, is a higher likelihood of renovated auditorium than new construction," said Charlie Hay, principal architect of Tappe Associates.

Other Considerations
Residents who spoke up at the meeting mentioned several other ideas for architects to consider, including moving the Department of Public Works building off of the site and using the whole corner of North Ave/Main Street for the potential new school, or putting in a turf field and a grass field instead of two grass fields. Others mentioned building up into a three or four story facility instead of building out wide, and ensuring there were "green" elements to the new school or to the additions.

Officials said that although the DPW would probably like a new location, the MSBA doesn't provide reimbursement money for buying additional property. It also doesn't provide reimbursement money to install turf instead of grass fields.

"It is possible to consider a turf field at 100% paid for locally if the need is justified," said Hay.

Jeff Luxenberg of Joslin, Lesser + Associates added that "green" initiatives would increase the amount of reimbursement by the MSBA.

"There's a base 48.47 percent reimbursement rate, and for a green design, it's an additional two percentage points," he said. "Another two percentage points can be finagled by using specific maintenance practices and delivery methods. So potentially the MSBA will fund 52.47% of the project," he said.

In terms of total costs, officials said it is still too early to predict the price tag on the project, although they were confident to expect at least a 50% reimbursement rate from the MSBA.

Future Steps
There will be two more public forums held, one on Oct. 3 and one on Nov. 1st, all at the Galvin Middle School Auditorium.

The project committee plans to submit the first design option plans to the MSBA on Friday, Sept. 23.  Following that submission, the group will submit a firm design on Oct. 7, after the second public forum meeting. Then, February of 2012 is when the final design project scope and budget will be sent to the MSBA. In May, the plans will be submitted to town meeting, and the town will vote on a debt exclusion to help fund the project.