Middle School Classroom Expansion Options Narrowed To Four

The Middle School Building Committee focused on four classroom expansion options of the eight outlined earlier this year, though one neighbor challenged them to reconsider parts of the plans.

Pip Lewis, principal for HMFH Architects of Cambridge, reviewed the options, which the committee has been considering in response to an anticipated increase in student enrollment.

The new classrooms will be needed by 2013, when student enrollment is expected to increase from 1,130 to 1, 224 students. However,  the increase is expected to begin in FY12.

The options, 1A, 4A, 5A and 8A from the original eight, which allow administration to stay in the building during the first phase, Lewis said, include:

Option 1 - This option includes re-arranging the interior of Wellesley Middle School with no modular classrooms added to the building. The METCO office, health and wellness office, lecture halls would be converted to classroom space. This option's estimated cost is $1.2 million. This option only allows for three of four needed special education classrooms.

Option 4A  - This option includes two second floor renovations and one first floor rennovation, along with a modular classroom space at the school's tennis courts, beyond the back parking lot. In this plan, the gym is replaced by science classrooms and the top of the school's lecture hall is converted to classroom space. "You lose the gym. You lose it entirely," said Superintendent Bella Wong. This alternative's estimated cost is  $1.3 million.

Option 5A - This option puts the two-story modular classrooms from Option 4a on Calvin Road instead, as an addition to the main building. The estimated cost is $2.4 million.

Option 8A - This option would place two two-story modular classroom spaces in the front courtyard of the Middle School. A benefit to this option, said Lewis, is that since the modular buildings are not near a street, permitting will likely move more quickly than the other options. 

Keeping school adminstration offices on-site for an extra year will save the town money, said Lewis, since the town won't have to spend money to make the move. 

Ruth Quinn Bardell, the school business administrator, said the school department has looked at sites for the offices, but haven't settled on a possible location yet. 

Tere Ramos, who lives near the Middle School, reminded building committee members that many neighbors are out of town at the moment. She urged them to post the minutes of the meeting promptly so traveling neighbors would be up to date on the school department's plans.

Ramos said the options that put modular buildings on Calvin Road pose a safety concern, because drivers dropping off students wouldn't have a lot of visibility around the corner of Calvin Road and Kingsbury Street. "You'd have to convert that whole area to a no-parking zone," she said. She also asked the committee to consider moving the administration out of the building, to avoid using modular classrooms.

Lewis said that if an option is chosen and approved at Town Meeting, work could begin in January. The committee will meet again Wednesday, Aug. 25, at Town Hall, 9 a.m.