001So, everyone knows Rick Norris. >> I I'd like to thank you all for having us back again. And the intent tonight is is to bring you up to SK up to speed on where we are with the with the buildings. We work with the superintendent, his teams on the programs, and you'll see those there. The building itself is pretty much fixed. Some of the finishings still may need a little bit of work on the budget to get that in line, which you always are on these projects. Schedulewise, we're looking at December, early to mid December to go out to bid, start construction in April, March or April next year, and then finish in June 2021. >> April of this April of 20 >> 2020 and finish the schools in 2021. >> April of this year
002is 2020, right? >> Yes. >> Well, kind of five months. >> Well, the school the school year this calendar year. >> Yeah. Right. Right. Right. >> Yeah. So this next >> So we're going to begin construction hopefully next March or April. >> Yeah. 2020. >> 2020. Mother Nature so fast. 2020 was so far away, right? And here it is. >> It did sound like that a long time ago, didn't it? >> Yeah, it did. So, after Joe's presentation, I'll I'll bring you up to date on the middle school condition, where we are with that, and what that schedule is. So, I'll let Joe Banks from Perkins Eastman here run through his slideshow. Please feel free to ask questions and I'm sure you'll have some, right, >> Absolutely. Yeah. So, thank you. Um, I'm Joe Banks.
003I'm an architect at Perkins Eastman and I'm the project manager for both of these elementary school projects. And uh, it's good to see good to see you all again. I just wanted to give you sort of an overview of where the elementary schools are at currently. As Rick said, there's still, you know, we're still in the process of censing up the construction documents. So, you know, by all means, when we give you these renderings, don't think that the building is absolutely going to be that shade of of X, Y, or Z. We're still working on that. But certainly if you have questions particularly as they pertain to curriculum or the instructional spaces, please please let me know. We'll take those comments to heart. So we wanted to start kind of from the outside in and
004orient you first to the site, how all of these sites are going to be working with the schools. And the first one we're doing is Cutler. So as you recall, the existing school is on this side of the of the property. And in order to get the timing right and everything so forth, we're putting the the new building on this side. The access for the buses, as you can see, is going to be in this circle around here. That'll be drop off and pick up for the buses. And for drop off and pickup for parents, we've got this big long aisle back here where cars can kind of stack and collect folks and and so on and so forth. In addition to that, we've got the prek parking lot here. Those are for for the
005really little kids. We have a separate parking lot for those folks. And then they would have their own separate entrance over on this side on the little building. Um, couple other things to orient you to the site. This is kind of the the service area of the building. This is where trucks will be coming up to drop off supplies. It's where, you know, dumpsters will be unloaded. It's kind of the, you know, the not so nice end of the building, but the one that makes everything run. Just a little bit down from there, you're going to see two one, two, three playground areas. That's for the variety of ranges in the elementary school. We need to have three playgrounds for that. And then, of course, we have sort of the baseball and the multi-purpose field
006that are just >> And that's in existence right now. >> That's correct. >> Yeah. Right. >> Question. >> Yes. um where you have the multi-purpose field and the baseball field. Currently that is the baseball fields are where the building is and you have two baseball fields. You have a T-ball little league like little guys >> field and then you have Babe Ruth and Fromore the freshman sophomore team from the high school field. So you're only putting one field there. But is that going to be it's going to be too big for the little dudes? >> What what they did is we moved the softball field which is the size of that field over to the middle school. Well, those are the Mystic Little League field. >> So, there's not going to be a Mystic Little
007League field in the middle at the middle school. >> Mystic Little League is That's Gr. They can't play there. The zip code won't let them. >> The It has to do I I don't know the bylaws exactly. They This is as far as they can go into Grton. >> So, all our fields will now if you live in the 06355 zip code, your kids are going to have to play over to Stony. maybe they could do something at both. >> So, I know that this is this is a hot button issue and I do know that this is part of the um the transition. I believe that park and wreck is going to be working um on fields and stuff like that because I know that that was >> question. You're losing the tennis courts.
008That's where my kids learn to ride their bikes. >> Most of the kids in the area because it's a very hilly area. I I understand it's an elementary school >> and now it's an elementary school and my kids also play tennis down there. >> We have we have to go by what's what we're allowed by the state to build >> but we're carrying stuff out we should put back. >> We're not going to be reimbursed for it. If we have money at the end of the project we can certainly look at those things but right now they can't be part of the plan because of the state reimbursement requirements or eligibility for reimbursement. Um, >> but I would love for you to champion that cause with m making sure that park and wreck >> um
009because they're the ones that also have a huge stake in that >> because it's like the ones they're the ones that have the huge stake in that as well. >> You know, there's just a lot to take. Butler's far away. My kids could hop skip at a jump in there in the Butler parking lot. >> Yep. And so are all of Bair all like they're really a lot of most of that neighborhood Judson they all feed into what this is going to be and that's where they all have learned to ride their bikes. They've all played tennis there. They muck about nice skate on the pond that you can't see in that picture. I just kind of concerned what we're going to be affecting and losing in baby and bath water again. I know. It's
010like I try very hard not to do that. >> All right. So, I'm going to move on. Thank you. I hear your question about curriculum. >> Yep. Mine is um since there are going to be at least 604 students of this school, I was hoping that the design would be able to do prek through one in one section of the school, another section 2, three, primary, and then four, five, so that they're separated and that the prek through one would have access to the playgrounds from their Why why don't you let Joe go through his presentation? He'll show you. >> We'll we'll show you a little bit. >> That really is very important that those prek kids can go out those doors to a playground. I'm not seeing that right there, but maybe they're >>
011Yeah, we'll show you later. It's also state code. You know, kids at that age have to be young. So, you'll see how we >> And is it two floors? >> It's actually three floors on the on our classroom one. But let me maybe spin through this. Can we um can we have people write down their questions and so that because I think each slide's going to progress on each other. So if you guys could just write down your questions and then we'll try to have them your e your question will either be made sense of or um it it's a great question and they haven't thought about it. >> How's that for >> right? Um so here's sort of a three dimension of how that looks. Again, just to orient you on the site. This
012is this is the new building and this is how it may look. Um, so what you have is you've got the that prek entry that we were talking about over here. So that that's the parking lot here and this is the main front of the building. This is the the main entryway. And so what we typically do with with elementary schools is you want to get kind of all the big boxes in one area. Those are the more public spaces, the spaces that may be used for community use or that sort of thing. So, what you're seeing here, you have the administration right at the front area, which is exactly where you want eyes on that whole area, security and so forth. You also have nurse and other administrative functions in that area. Next thing
013that you'll see is the media center, the gymnasium, and the cafeteria. in addition to some of the boiler rooms in the back of house spaces. When we get to the plans, I'll show those in a little more detail, but I just wanted to orient you to the overall mass of the building so that you kind of understand how it's organized as a whole. This is another view of that. Again, you have your threetory classroom wing over here. Big box space is here. And that's that service entrance that I was talking about a little bit earlier. One more view just for good measure. And this is kind of the the rendering of how that front entryway may look. Um, again, administration is here. You have a canopy there. And then access from the parking lot over
014here, both for the buses and for the kids that are being dropped off on the side there. This is a look if you were walking in from the prek area. So, the prek has their own entrance here. The main entrance again is all the way over here. So those are those have some separation in terms of your concern about mixing of of younger and older kids. And then this is the threetory classroom block. This is a view in that courtyard. You remember earlier that the the two buildings are a little bit held off one another. This is the courtyard and you can see the media center here that kind of looks out into the courtyard as well as the area that sort of that's the transition between those two wings of the building. Um, we're
015going to get into the plans for both of those later, but now I'm going to do the same, walk you through exactly the same thing on west side, >> starting with the site. So, again, on West Side, it's exactly the opposite. The existing buildings over here. So, we're building here. On West Side, one of the things that you have to keep in mind is there's about a 30 foot drop from here all the way back to here. So what that meant was even though the building is organized in a similar way, it has to sit slightly differently on the site. So even though the buildings are very similar in terms of the way they're organized, they're kind of sisters. They're not twins. So just keep that in mind as we as we look at this.
016Um again, the drop off for the parents is right along the road. We have nice couple of curb cuts there. The service entry is right here. So we've got that right next to the kitchen and the other pieces here and the main entry is right here. So, it's very easy for drop off and pick up here as well as for the bus drop off and pick up here. So, we've allowed this long loop through the parking lot for the buses here. We have a ton of room in between these spaces in case emergency vehicles have to come in. And we've got plenty of parking here. As you move down the hill, these are the play spaces. So, these are accessible directly from the building. you go out to these and we've got our three play
017spaces in addition to a little heartscaped area there moving down the hill. So for again we want to locate those prek and those younger kids in an area where drop off and pickup is a little more separated from the other folks. So what we've done is to provide a road back here and these are the spaces for the prek drop off. they have their own entrance here. And when I go to the three-dimensional view, I think that'll make a little more sense of how this works. Um, in addition to that, at the request of the fire department, we've added this turnaround loop here. That means that the fire equipment can get to pretty much every corner of the building as is necessary. Back here, we've got the existing field, and that is going to be
018rehabilitated and actually going to be raised about four feet with fill from the rest of the site. how that plays out. Again, this is this is Brande Road here. This is the main entry here. It's the administration and nurse, the media center, gymnasium, and cafeteria. This is the threetory classroom wing here. So, again, a very similar arrangement to Cutler, but because the grade, it works a little differently. front. This is the This is the ground level, if you will. And you go directly across this little bridge here and you enter what is the second story of the building on this level. Now, what that means is that you can actually put the the preK and K and first graders on either floor of those buildings and of this building rather and they're able to access
019the outside appropriately from either of those. But here is the the prek entry. So that was the area that I was talking about before. So again, they have their own separate entry into that that lower level of the building there. Just so that you know, it's the lower level of the building, but there's still tons and tons of daylight on this. It's essentially ground level on this side. So this may be where uh there might be some queueing of cars there as well, but you can really see kind of how this whole thing plays out. This is a This is a tremendous slope down to here. We've got retaining walls and we've got another playground down here for the prek kids. One more view just for good measure. You see the courtyard here as well.
020And then this is the this is that entry that we're talking about. Again, you'll see a lot of the same design elements for each school. They're rendered somewhat differently. We have different palette of colors both for the interior and exterior of both schools. This is again the view that you might see at the prek. That's the entrance there. This is the play area for the prek. And this is the main portion of the building including the drop off there. This again is the look looking at the courtyard. This is that kind of bridge between the buildings between the classroom building over here and the administrative block over here. And that I'm going to dig into the floor plans a little bit. >> Can you show me the elevator? >> Sure. Y elevator room is right
021here. So, the only the only build the only wing of the building I should say that needs the elevator is that threetory. >> Right. I realize that. >> Yeah. So that if a child is up on that third floor who needs to go to the nurse, they have to walk down. They're on that end, come down, go down the elevator, come across the bridge, and then go into where the nurse's room is or the office. >> That's right. And so this is this is Cutler. This is where we have all the the younger kids on the ground floor. You'll see that prek, K, and first grade are all accommodated on that first floor. Again, for code reason just designers bathrooms. >> Teachers bathrooms are sort of scattered throughout, but we've got we've got some here
022and here. >> Just want to make sure, especially on the lower where the kids don't get, they can have a quick access point. One of the things I want to point out in this one is what we're calling the commons area. So you'll see geometry-wise, this and this are at 90° angles and this is kinkedked a little bit. The reason for that is to widen this out a little bit. You know, it's not a very grand gesture, but it's a little something to give that space a little more breathing room. That might be a gathering space for, you know, tours or for orientations or that sort of thing. as well as kids who might be waiting for drop off and pick up. Couple of other things to point out on Cutler is that the the
023holding spaces, if you will, the the spaces where kids would be waiting either before or after school, a number of these spaces could work for that. Both the gymnasium, the cafeteria, or the media center might be spaces that again you have very clear access to the front, very clear visibility on those areas. When we go up a floor, you begin to see the rest of the program. The second grade ABA program that was being talked about a little bit uh before. We have special ed. We also have art and faculty dining on the second floor. You'll see staircases here. Everything in red is sort of circulation. So, that kind of helps you read the plan a little bit. And on the third floor, we have the rest of the classrooms. And it's pretty straightforward. We
024wanted to give you kind of a sense of the flavor of some of these spaces as we're going through. It's it's one thing to look at a plan and it's another thing to kind of imagine, you know, bodies in there, kids, teachers, faculty, that kind of stuff. So, this is that main lobby area where we're talking about this would be the doors that go out to the um out to the uh the play area and so forth outside. Be standing here and looking at that. This is the media center and administration there to the left. Now this is this is also um Cutler but the the design and the configuration of the spaces will be pretty similar in west side as well. This is another view. This is kind of looking through to that bridge
025um that goes between the buildings and this is area for display artwork etc. These little windows are windows into the gymnasium itself. So, it's a way of kind of bringing some interest and and showing that there's activity um in those areas as well as kind of lightening the space up a little bit instead of leaving a concrete wall. Oh, uh just to to go back, I'm sure you guys are going to ask what these things are. >> So, these are acoustic baffles. Um and they're there for a couple of reasons. One is an aesthetic so that we can have this this open high ceiling, but also so that you know it doesn't feel so high. But by far the more important reason is so that we can use these to absorb sound. Um in areas
026like this, even in the current two middle schools, when you walk in, it's very loud. As soon as anybody's passing, there's a there's a lot of noise in there. And and we think it's just good design to help kind of tamp that down and make it a little little calmer. This is a view of what the gymnasium may look like. Again, what we've got is we've got a lot of natural light coming in up top. Um, we find that generally speaking that really helps in terms of energy bills and everything else like that. Keeps down the light standards u wood court, etc. And this uh even though this is an elementary school, these are middle school size courts. So, we're thinking of community use and so forth. >> I'm I'm interested to have kids who
027can dunk. I actually liked the girl that was Oh, that's she's dunking. Okay. >> Yes. >> By the way, >> especially in elementary. >> Yeah, >> breathe up big. He is invisible though. >> Yeah, that that's true. Maybe that helps with the light. >> Um, what we call kind of a shoe box view of the media center. We find that this helps everybody sort of visualize things. I want to emphasize that all the furnishings and everything that will be finalized kind of in the next phase of things, you know, after construction has started, but we want to put furniture in there so you get an idea of what the space is going to be like. Um, you see a lot of furniture that is movable that's on wheels. We think that's a good idea just
028so you can reconfigure the space pretty easily. And we feel like light and the view of the outside is pretty important. We have this what we're calling a story area here and that's going to look out in both schools under that courtyard. So you'll see you know sort of the natural surroundings in those areas. >> Here's a footnote Joe for the board. When we when we did the furniture with the middle school, we brought in the media specialists and we brought in the science teachers for the lab. So there's there's been really terrific collaboration >> among the staff and and the architects >> and that's when it really gets real, right? when the furniture starts going into >> when when you do the um at our two newest elementary schools, we have a lot of
029wasted space in our library with this upper thing there. >> The shingles this isn't anything like >> nothing like that. We we did learn some lessons the second time >> and the classrooms are rectangular or no more. >> So once again if we could save the questions for the um and that would be helpful. >> Sure. >> I just want to show they're going to put blinds there. >> So this is another another view of the media center. Again a little bit lower down we do have these baffles that sort of come into some of the space. And this is what you might see in a typical uh grade type classroom. Again, we're on the order of around 800 square feet per regular classroom. There's a fifth grade science classroom that's a little bit bigger
030than that. The art classrooms are bigger than that just because they've got to accommodate, you know, wider range of activities. But again, typically you'll have an exterior wall with with light with sun shades is necessary to sort of mitigate flare and distraction. You have the teaching wall with um a projector similar to this one, the whiteboard as well as other things on this side. Then you have some teacher mill work for storage. There's a sink in every classroom as well. And in the lower lower uh level classrooms, we also have bathrooms that are associated with those. So, you know, that's a Here's another view of that. Don't be fooled by how narrow this is. This this is a parallax that that's just created by the rendering program that we have. >> So they really have
031those whiteboards all the way around the room, don't they? >> Yeah, that's the idea. >> So that's really helpful. >> So that every surface is a teaching surface. >> We like to incorporate that throughout the whole building. Where did the children hang their coats? >> I'll I'll go back questions till the end >> and see that. >> That would be great. >> Um this is what we're calling a commons area. Um, when we go back to the plans, as we will in a second, you'll see that the there are a couple areas midway through the classroom block. You know, classroom blocks can be very repetitive. Those hallways can get really long, especially for little kids. And so, what we like to do is we like to make a little node in the middle of that
032where you may have, you know, a whiteboard, you might have a bench, and it's kind of a a little bit of an expansion space. the teacher wants to take a small group out there, then you have an instructional space that you can utilize there as well. Um, again, I'll show you where that is in the plan. It may not make a whole lot of sense in this rendering. Another view of the media center. This is the this is sort of the cafeteria performance space. Again, it's very similar between the two schools, although the configuration is a little different. So you've got access to the outside through these both visually and bodily access. You can exit those spaces. Servy and kitchen is over here. And you've got sort of the main cafeteria space here. In addition
033to that, you have sort of the performance area. Now I want to point out this isn't a raised platform performance area that you might see. This is flat. So what that enables you to do is this can operate as a regular classroom. um pretty much the rest any any time that it needs to. And it's got an acoustical partition u which is a very expensive thing, but we we think that it's a a worthwhile thing in this that can sort of go across this. So this can be used as a separate music classroom anytime even if there's stuff going on in the cafeteria. But during the times when you have a performance that needs to be accommodated there or a lecture or something, this door can open. You've got a screen that can come down
034here and you've got everything that you need for a performance in terms of curtains, in terms of baffles, uh, lighting equipment, that kind of stuff. This is another view sort of back towards the servery. So again, you got a couple doors of the servery where folks are circulating here. Got views to the outside and then this is the quarter that you would access the the cafeteria from. We wanted to show you the administrative suite um just so you have a sense as to as to how the the progression of everything goes. So we've got the secure vestibule. This is uh this is west side actually. So you have the secure vestibial and the way that the folks would get in if it's not regular school hours and the doors aren't completely open. What you have
035to do is you've got to check in here in the reception in order to get into the building. Then if you're released, then you can come back out through here. We've got conference center. We've got reception. We've got the principal and associate principal. We've got toilets and storage and so forth. Here we have faculty dining and west side is that's right on the ground floor as well as sort of the nurse suite and the schoolbased health clinic is there. This is one view of the administrative suite in the west side. Again, there's it's just a a small reception area and the bulk of the administrative area is behind there. Westside floor plans. Again, you're going to see very similar organization to the other one. We've got the big box spaces here. On this one, we
036have art and coral and instrumental music on this floor. This is the administrative area that I just showed you in the media center. And this is the classroom way. Now, I think Yeah, here we go. So, that's that commons area that I showed you a little bit about. So, kind of midway in the corridor, we want to be able to open that up a little bit, you know, have a little nicer lighting and give some relief to this long corridor. The question came earlier about the lockers. So, for the older kids, we have the lockers in the hall as you might, you know, in a middle school or elementary school. But down below, those are cubbies that are actually within the classrooms themselves. That seems to be easier to manage for the the lower grades.
037This is also the prek entry here. And so you've got kind of a little vestibular reception area there as well for the for the smaller kids. Got the boiler room. Keep in mind this is the slope. This is the 30ft slope that comes down here. So these areas here don't have any windows. that are kind of backed up to uh to a retaining wall. But as you move this way, the slope gets lower and lower. And so these are actually able to have regular windows just like everybody else. >> Well, this gray area that doesn't have >> this this is boiler room and electric room. >> So it's just nothing child. >> That's exactly right. Yeah. And then this on west side, this is the what's would be the second story from the street, but
038the third story on this classroom overall. And those are th those are the oldest kids there. Again, very similar program between the two buildings. So with that, I'll open it up to questions. You can see kind of the the mirror image or the or the sister schools next to one another. >> Thank you very much for coming and spending some time with us. I really appreciate that. Thank you. If those are helpful. Thank you.