Templeton School Options Eyed

Templeton School Options Eyed
Officials hope to fast-track plan
Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer

Courtesy photo
This preliminary site design (Option C) is for the proposed new three-story elementary school with designated bus and parent drop-off areas and improved parking space. The existing Templeton Center School would be demolished and the new building would sit farther south on the lot, closer to the Police Station

TEMPLETON The vision for the town’s new elementary school is finally becoming more clear after years of roadblocks and delays. The Elementary School Building Committee has approved a preliminary site plan that would see Templeton Center School demolished and a three-story facility built in its place.

Project manager Jonathan Winikur told the committee that the Mass­achusetts School Building Authority lit a fire under the project by giving it a tighter deadline than anticipated and expressing a reluctance to grant any more extensions. To stay on schedule, the project needs to be on the Nov. 3 ballot for local appropriation approval.

“We need to get approvals so we can continue this march,” he said. “The only way we can hit that is by getting into a July MSBA meeting, and in order to do that, we have to submit this information at the beginning of June.”
  
Since going before the school building authority in March, Mr. Winikur said his team has been doing site surveys, investigations and traffic studies as part of the feasibility phase of the project.

Considering the limitations of the site and current road configurations, traffic has been a large concern since the Templeton Center School lot was voted as the preferred location for a new building. Mr. Winikur said the new school will bring a considerable amount of additional traffic to South and Wellington roads.

“We’re going to have roughly three times as much traffic on this site as currently exists,” he said.

Assuming the new school will have about 620 students, the preliminary traffic study projected 385 trips to the school during peak morning hours and 335 in the afternoon. Buses would be given their own drop-off area on South Road while parents would let their children out on Wellington Road. The intersection of Dudley and Wellington roads would be reworked with extra signs to accommodate the additional traffic without any major reconstruction needed.

When discussing potential site plans, Mr. Winikur and his team developed three options for the location: one geared toward renovating the existing building and constructing an adjacent addition; the other two focused on developing an entirely new structure.

“Bottom line is that the population fits on the site,” Mr. Winikur said.

The addition/renovation option would see the current Templeton Center School converted into a space for prekindergarten and kindergarten students, with grades 1 through 5 moving into the new building. Of the two new building options, one featured a larger, more spread out school, while the other was designed to be more compact, allowing more recreation space for students. In all three options, the original school would remain standing and operational until the project is complete.

Taking a look inside the building, classrooms would be divided into pods, with grades grouped together in separate areas. The first floor would be occupied by prekindergarten through first-grade students and would feature a gym, cafeteria, outside play area and centrally located music and art classrooms. Second- and third-graders would occupy the second floor with the media center and special education department. Fourth- and fifth-graders would be on the third floor with additional space for music, art and special education.

Keeping in mind the school would be located in a residential area, Mr. Winikur said the designers tried to mitigate the building’s height and that only one portion, closer to Wellington Road, would actually be three stories tall.

“It kind of does a depth perception thing to you, where it never feels as big because it’s sliding so far backwards,” he explained.

All three plans tentatively include improving and expanding a parking area currently used by the neighboring police station for additional staff parking.

“It would improve the site, but it also means they would be sharing the lot,” Mr. Winikur said.

The project manager said a safe separation between police and staff parking could be maintained, giving the department as much space as necessary while giving it clear access to South and Wellington roads in emergencies.

Committee member Hank Mason said that, considering the tight time line, the Police Department and Board of Selectmen should be contacted soon to arrange negotiations for using the lot.

“We need to know now whether we can use that before we go much further,” he said.

After reviewing their options, the committee selected the compact school building as its preferred plan, paving the way for Mr. Winikur and his team to develop comprehensive cost estimates.

“I think you’ve done great work,” elementary school Principal Dr. John Graziano said of the concept design. “It’s creative to the max as far as the limitations of the site.”

The school building committee will meet again on May 21 to review cost estimates. On May 27, selectmen will consider the project — and proposed expansion into the Police Station parking lot — before sending it to the Narragansett School Committee on May 28. On June 11, the preliminary schematic and design program will be submitted to the MSBA for its July 29 meeting. If given the green light, the project will move into the official schematic and design phase, which will be ready for submission to the MSBA on Oct. 1.

The town ballot vote on the new school will likely be held on Nov. 3. On Nov. 18, the MSBA will look over the project one final time for funding approval.

A positive vote will set the building up for two years of construction, with a completion date of late 2018.