Silver Lake Regional Middle School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

During the initial planning for the new middle school, several sites within three communities were being considered for the location. The District agreed to follow the Designer’s recommendation to locate the new school on a parcel of land adjacent to the exiting High School. This allows for the creation of a campus concept between the schools.

The local school administration used this opportunity to develop the new school based on a Middle School concept. The old traditional Junior High concept had proved to be inadequate in providing a smooth transition between the elementary school single homeroom based learning environment and the high school setting that relies heavily on a student’s independent study abilities.

The key goal in designing this school was to produce a learning environment that would facilitate team teaching and help students within each team create their own identity. This was achieved with a cluster concept together with defined entrance “gate” elements for each team area. Each cluster includes English, social studies, world language, special education, math and science classrooms arranged around the small group room. This small group room acts as the nucleus for each team, designed as a kiosk. All four walls can be used as display surfaces for the students to create or “decorate” the group’s distinctive identity. The intent of the kiosk is to create a breakout space for brainstorming sessions when groups are working together on projects. Additionally, the space provides a unique workspace during parent-teacher meetings.

Site topography greatly impacted this design. The “split level” concept fits ideally into the site. The main lobby and a majority of the public spaces are located at the main entrance level. While the classroom portion of this building is designed as a two story structure. Access to both levels from the main entrance requires only half a story flight of stairs. Both teachers and students value the courtyard. It is a unique feature positioned on the natural slope and is visible from various vantage points in the school. It was planned with sustainable features in mind, one piece being the placement of drought resistant plants. The seating stones placed throughout the outdoor space create an informal atmosphere and have become a favorite place for the students to gather. A terrace was designed at the upper level of the courtyard with direct access from the IMC. This terrace became a natural extension of all library activities.

The design team had a great opportunity to develop two school buildings on the same site. The challenge was to design and construct a new facility next to the existing high school. Upon completion of the Middle School, renovations and an addition began at the high school to create a cohesive campus environment. The Middle School program emphasizes a properly scaled building as well as creative environment for both students and teachers. The new building responded to the request for “identity” through small academic team clusters, classrooms overlooking the internal courtyard, large group gathering spaces and an entrance courtyard.

Educator Narrative

As of this writing, we have just completed three quarters of a school year in our new building. From this perspective, we can reflect on some lessons learned relative to the design elements of our school and how they play out in operation.

The philosophy and organization of the Regional Middle School is based on Turning Points 2000. This book, the work of the Carnegie Corporation, outlines a set of core organizing principles drawn from research on the best practices for middle level learners. First among these principles is that large middle grade schools should be organized into smaller communities or teams for learning. Our new school was designed with six team pods, three on each of the first and third floors, consisting of six classrooms rooms and a small group or team meeting room. Even the color schemes were chosen to reflect separateness and transitions. This design has been hugely successful. Each of the teams has developed a specific identity and communication among the teaching staff. The small group or team rooms have a very high utilization rate housing parent meetings, small group project work, and daily meetings by the team teachers.

The layout and positioning of the school’s library, auditorium, cafeteria, special subject rooms such as technical education and family consumer sciences, gym and fitness center, guidance and health suite, lobby and reception area, and the school administration offices are a great fit for purpose. The creation of office space for the parent teacher organization (PTO) has made it easy and welcoming for the organization to carry out its work here in the building. We have two specially designed classrooms that we have made available for a special needs collaborative. Their presence in the school enhances students’ understanding of difference. Our greatest challenges moving forward will be to make better use of our large group spaces and to train our teachers to continuously increase the understanding and use of the school’s technology.

As the principal of the Regional Middle School, I had the opportunity and privilege to be a part of the planning process for our new school building. My role was to collaborate with the district curriculum coordinators and middle school teachers to create the educational specification. The educational specification is that portion of the building project application that provides information of how the school project meets the educational standards of the curriculum frameworks as established by the board of education. Our work extended beyond that goal to include design elements that we felt would facilitate the implementation of a middle school organization and its teaching and learning model. In both instances, we learned first-hand the design principle that “form follows function”.