The Pollard Middle School construction project is becoming a real-world example of the architectural adage that “form follows function.” Physical designs for the project will be guided by the School Committee’s proposed education plan that informs how each space in the school will be used, including the expectation that the facility will be a grade 6-8 school, eliminating the need for a standalone 6th-grade building.
The 100-page draft was discussed in detail at the School Committee’s Aug. 20 meeting, including a presentation from Hank Haff, the town’s director of design and construction, and Matt LaRue and Tina Stanislaski from HMFH Architects, the Pollard project’s designers. The committee is poised to vote on approving the plan at its Sept. 2 meeting.
Referring to the draft, Haff said, “What is written there is creating the framework for the square footage for every single space within the building. That moves us from the educational program into the design of the facility.”
LaRue said the plan “allows us to move forward as the designers of the building to work in a very clear way to make sure that the architecture and all of the components work in tandem to achieve the vision that was set out.”
As for the current standalone 6th grade at High Rock School, Jessica Downey, High Rock’s principal, emphasized that High Rock was intended as a “temporary solution” when it opened in 2009.
“The reason why my job exists is that there was overcrowding in Pollard and they knew bubbles were coming,” she said.
“In that fractured middle-school environment we haven’t been able to meet all the needs of all the students in Needham,” she said.
The draft language notes that, “The intention was for grade 6 to eventually re-enter Pollard Middle School once the demographic surge subsided. However, this never materialized. Despite the continued deterioration of the Pollard physical building, the original rationale for the separation — overcrowding at Pollard — persisted and even intensified.”
The report makes references to several ongoing challenges. “The need for additional intervention programming to support struggling students became critical, yet there was no additional space to house these vital services,” the draft plan reads.
“The long-term impact of this split has led to significant instructional, academic, and social-emotional concessions for Needham’s sixth graders. The initial ‘temporary’ solution, intended to alleviate overcrowding at Pollard, inadvertently created a two-tiered middle school experience. From a philosophical standpoint, the maintenance of two separate middle school programs on different campuses is seen as detrimental to supporting the holistic developmental, academic, and social-emotional growth of children aged 11-14, who ideally benefit from a cohesive middle-level educational environment.”
Dr. Carmen Williams, assistant superintendent of instruction and innovation, noted that Pollard and High Rock both currently lack space for collaborative, interactive multi-disciplinary learning that she says is central to current and future educational practices.
“You’re going to see words like ‘movable, flexible, open, adaptable’ because we don’t know the future and the best way we can prepare for what’s coming is for us to be open,” she said.
“We can’t build this amazing educational opportunity for students in straw houses. We really do need the facilities to match the learning environment that we’re trying to create.”
There was no pushback from committee members against the idea of restoring Pollard as a grade 6-8 school. It would make way for the future implementation of another key element of the school’s long-term master plan, which is to convert High Rock to an elementary school that could house Mitchell School students if and when that school is renovated.
Once a new Mitchell is ready to be occupied, High Rock would become the town’s sixth elementary school.
“You maybe have an opportunity like this once in a generation, maybe once every two generations to do something like this,” said committee member Matt Spengler.
“It seems an incredibly compelling reason to bring all three grades together.”
Costs and challenges
Five days later, at the Aug. 25 meeting of the Permanent Public Building Committee, the many challenges inherent in realizing the creation of a grade 6-8, 1,335-student Pollard Middle School were more front and center.
Haff, LaRue and Stanislaski once again offered a lengthy presentation on the six options under serious consideration. (There are seven overall, but an option required by the Massachusetts School Building Authority to study simply doing repairs to bring the current Pollard up to code is highly unlikely to be chosen.)
The presentation also included a “probable cost analysis” of all the options. The architects and PPBC members strongly emphasized that these should not be viewed as “estimates” as they lack the rigorous analysis that is typically done to produce a reliable estimate.
“The purpose of this in the estimating standpoint is really to understand the relative cost between options,” said LaRue. “Don’t put too much weight on these as final costs for any individual option. “
As they have done at the multiple public meetings on the project, the architects offered a high-level review of six possible approaches:
- An “addition/renovation” of the current Pollard facility as either a 6-8 or 7-8 school
- New construction at the Pollard site of either a 6-8 or 7-8 school
- New construction at DeFazio Park of either a 6-8 or 7-8 school
The presentation was only marginally different from what was presented to the Park & Recreation Commission at its Aug. 11 meeting and at other community listening sessions. It was noted once again that the construction would cause considerable disruption to operations at DeFazio, including the temporary loss of one or more playing fields during the multi-year construction period and the need to allocate money within the project budget to refurbish damaged fields.
Both sites were described as tight and providing inadequate room for laydown space for construction equipment and supplies, parking for workers and other logistical needs during construction.
There are also wetlands and stormwater concerns, as well as the need to deal with issues related to the presence of the MBTA commuter rail line and the nearby town DPW facilities. Traffic circulation, both during and after construction, is also seen as challenging and a traffic study will be done early in the process.
As for the cost analysis, the numbers came in above the current $314 million estimate. The “add/reno” option at Pollard came in between $310.8 and $338.9 million. This was slightly costlier than new construction at Pollard (between $310.1 and $329.6 million) and DeFazio (between $303.4 and $331 million).
The grade 7-8 configurations all came in at around 80% of the cost of the grade 6-8 calculations.
The PPBC also faced questions from members of the Parks & Rec Commission, John Connelly of the Finance Committee and Select Board member Josh Levy who shared concerns that the process was moving too rapidly through its Feasibility Study phase without consultation with other town boards and the public.
The Pollard Middle School Building Committee has scheduled its next meeting in coordination with the School Committee’s Sept. 2 meeting. It intends to vote on its submission to the MSBA that night, but needs to wait until the School Committee’s expected approval of its education plan for the project.
While there was some apparent confusion at the PPBC meeting over how many of the seven options would be put forward for further study, the MSBA process does not limit the number of options that can be considered.
Stanislaski noted that the Sept. 2 vote will not limit the options under consideration.
“All seven options are going to travel with us through this next phase until December when we have to make the big decision about which one is going to be chosen to move forward.”
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