Wellesley School Building Committee Outlines Options For New Middle School Classrooms

This morning's School Building Committee meeting on expanding classroom space at Wellesley Middle School drew about 30 people to Town Hall to hear several new options the board will examine this summer.

The options explored variations on three themes: Rearranging existing space at the school, building additions and finding new locations for modular classrooms on the 50 Kingsbury St. property. Delivering a Powerpoint presentation on the choices was Pip Lewis, principal for HMFH Architects of Cambridge, which recently worked on Sprague Elementary School.

An earlier plan intended for voters to consider at Town Meeting  was withdrawn  from the warrant  last month.

The new options for additions included a new three-story addition on D'Auria Drive, a new wing on Calvin Road and connecting the wings facing Kingsbury Street with a courtyard addition, leaving the ground level open.

Several options involving rearranging interior space included a first-floor renovation, moving administration offices out of the building to another location, and relocating the METCO office.

Lewis also outlined a number of possible alternative sites for modular classrooms on the Middle School property. Among the locations were:

1)    A smaller sized modular building along Donazetti Street in the back parking lot of the building.

2)    The Calvin Street parking lot

3)    The tennis courts, which would be far from the main building and present handicapped accessibility challenges.

4)    A 2-story modular building at the corner of Kingsbury Street and Calvin Road.

5)    Two 1-story modular buildings at the corner of Kingsbury Street and Calvin Road.

6)    A large modular building in the courtyard of the Middle School facing Kingsbury Street.

7)    Modular buildings along the sides of the wings forming the Kingsbury Street courtyard.

8)    Two modular buildings, each in the back corners of the Kingsbury Street courtyard.

The advantage to the modular classrooms, Lewis said, is the speed with which they can be constructed.

"We have made no decisions," said Selectman Terri Tsgaris, a member of the School Building Committee, who noted the meeting was simply to outline the school department's options as they begin deciding among the best of the possible plans.

The new classrooms will be needed, said School Building Committee Member KC Kato, by 2013, when student enrollment is expected to increase from 1,130 to 1, 224 students. However, she said, the increase is expected to begin in FY12. "This is a problem that's occurring 15 months from now," she said.

Tsgaris said the SBC would be holding meetings to discuss the options, one of which they plan to choose from in time to put it before voters at the fall town meeting.

A second meeting on the proposals will be held tonight at Wellesley Town Hall, 525 Washington St.,  in the Great Hall (level H) at 7:30 p.m.