Back to School: New middle school boasts security and state-of-the-art technology

By: Cara Latham
   Amid the process of setting up desks, testing the public announcement system and hanging posters around the building, old black and white photographs lay undisturbed on a table in the main office.
   Girls in knee-length skirts sitting in front of a row of boys dressed sharply in suits. The pictures —saved and brought over to this new middle school — were taken of the eighth-grade classes in front of the district’s old middle school — when it was a K-8 school — and date as far back as the 1950s.
   While school administrators and faculty were busy putting the final touches on the new building Aug. 23, some of the staff jokingly, in passing, commented about how 21st century attire was no longer as prim and proper.
   The staff members were right — things have changed. And necessarily so. The new middle school off Waters Lane — which is set to open for class on Sept. 10 — is spacious enough to fit the growing district’s needs and features state-of-the-art facilities to keep up-to-date with today’s technology.
   Voters approved the $34.5 million new middle school project in 2004 and groundbreaking took place in May 2005. The 138,000-foot building can hold 650 students. Enrollment at the middle school this year is 624, Dr. Donahue said.
   The first thing a visitor notices about the new building is its security features. At the main entrance, parents and visitors are forced to walk through the main office before they can go elsewhere in the building.
   The setup of various classrooms also lends itself to safety. Science classrooms feature standard desks with round worktables in the back for experiments and lab work. Each science classroom also comes equipped with a storage room to hold both materials and sections for hazardous materials, Superintendent Mary Anne Donahue said.
   Desks in one of the computer classrooms on the first floor are arranged in a U-shape against the wall, with the teacher’s desk in the back of the room. Students’ backs will be to the teacher, but their screens won’t be. This is so teachers can see what students are doing on the computers at all times, Dr. Donahue said.
   The school provides computer and technology instruction to all grade levels, with lessons that teach students PowerPoint, Web site design, and word processing.
   Other features of the building include energy-saving lights, an elevator for disabled or injured students and a large media center and library. Classrooms are built around the media center on the first and second floors, with a view down into the library. Each wing of the school has its own stairway, bathrooms and teachers’ work rooms.
   Light from windows in each classroom on both floors illuminated chairs propped up on the desks while final touches are completed in the classrooms.
   "It’s nothing extravagant — airy, light, and clean," Dr. Donahue said.
   The second floor contains rooms for small group instruction — where special education students receive small group instruction in math or reading — which were designed with a movable, soundproof divider wall.
   A media studio on the second floor remained somewhat empty. Broadcasting equipment for the room was cut out of the budget this year, but Dr. Donahue said that she hopes to get the equipment next year.
   "It’s something that we want to offer," she said.
   She said the room could be used as a classroom in the meantime.Back on the bottom floor, the school’s art room is definitely an upgrade from what the school used before, Dr. Donahue said, with storage space in each desk for the students, plenty of light, and separate rooms for painting and kiln work. Storage areas for projects also line one of the walls.
   "Everything was developed with safety in mind," Dr. Donahue said.
   To the right of the main office is the "community" wing of the building. This part of the building contains the cafeteria, a 1,200-seat performing arts theater, two gyms and music rooms.
   "The community can have access to these without disrupting the classrooms," Dr. Donahue said.
   The cafeteria features tables with seats attached, which can be folded up to make room for events — possibly school board meetings. It also features large, walk-in freezers and enough space for students to filter through and pick up their lunches in an orderly fashion.
   The two music rooms — one for vocal instruction and the other for instruments — feature sound panels and, again, plenty of space. The musical instrument room has a separate entrance so students can drop off their equipment before class without lugging it around the building. Both rooms can also be used as dressing rooms for productions in the school’s nearby theater.
   That auditorium will be used for district performances and can be rented out to community performances as a way to raise money to offset costs to taxpayers, she said. It features full theatrical lighting and sound equipment.
   "We’re just thrilled that the project is going to open on time," Dr. Donahue said. "We think that the community is going to be very proud of the facility we built."
   The district is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the middle school at 10 a.m. on Sept. 8, followed by a community open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be live performances, refreshments and giveaways, and students will be able to pick up their full schedules, locker combinations, and do a walk-through to find their classrooms, Dr. Donahue said.
   "We’re just very anxious for the building to open and for the children to start their instruction here," she said.
   Oh, and those black and white pictures will be on display then, too.