On October 20,2023, Easthampton hosted a Story of a Building program at the Mountainview School. The Story of a Building program is an annual collaboration between the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). It is an opportunity for a host school district to share best practices advice with new MSBA school district partners. This year’s program at the new Pre-Kindergarten through grade eight elementary and middle school was attended by 34 school stakeholders from 16 different school districts. The school district attendees are in the early stages of preparation for their school building projects.
Easthampton consolidated three elementary schools which had been in operation since the late 1800s/early 1900s and its 1970’s-era middle school into a one-building solution. The design enrollment of the new, consolidated Mountain View School is 1,000. The cost to design and construct the 177,000+ square foot school was $109 million.
Attendees from across the state were joined by the Massachusetts Inspector General, Jeffrey S. Shapiro and the MSBA’s Executive Director, Mary Pichetti. They enjoyed a tour of the new building, a panel presentation from members of the school project team, lunch, and afternoon presentations on new MSBA policies and initiatives, as well as HMFH Architect’s overview of its pilot program focused on procurement strategies to achieve healthy interiors
Bert Gardner, Principal at Caolo & Bieniek, and Gail Sullivan, Principal at Studio G, began the morning session with a look at Easthampton’s visioning and educational planning process. Bert and Gail shared the importance of a robust visioning process to realize a strong educational plan. Beginning the visioning process by answering the question of how the district envisions its future methods of teaching and learning is crucial to the planning and design process. Answering this question with evidence-based decisions makes for a strong educational plan that stands up to administrative changes. In this district’s case, Easthampton’s educational plan withstood several major decision-maker departures, including two different superintendents, two different mayors, and several building committee member transitions.
Bert Gardner and Gail Sullivan also shared the objective of any design team, which is to translate the educational plan into a physical school. In Easthampton, they translated the creation of a Pre-K - 8 level school with the district’s vision of having a “small school feel, big school pride.” Using separate entrances, different color palates and other age-appropriate attributes, Bert and Gail helped the attendees understand what to look for during the tour that would distinguish their school location and identity. The elementary school is further distinguished with different color palettes at each grade-level learning neighborhood.
Additionally, they explained that flexible spaces are those that can adapt when educational changes are necessary. Flexibility is in part what the MSBA finds valuable to ensure that a school design will last 50 years. Multi-use spaces, movable walls, and minimal built-in cabinetry are a few examples of flexible attributes that help ensure that the space under the roof will accommodate teaching and learning as it inevitably evolves.
After completing their tour of the new school, attendees heard from a panel of Easthampton stakeholders: members of the school building committee, the design team, the owner’s project manager, general contractor, and school and City administrators for a discussion of their roles and lessons learned in the process from each perspective.
Consolidation of four local schools meant that the one-building solution had to be explained to the community and had to thoroughly meet the grade-level needs of elementary and middle school students. By an honest acknowledgment of the trade-offs and benefits and through dogged and open dialoging, their hard work paid off - 57% of Easthampton voters supported the project.
The panel members also divulged the key to a well-functioning building committee including the importance of a strong and well-respected chair, subcommittees with specific expertise, delegating authority to the superintendent to make decisions up to a specific dollar amount ($50,000) and a succession plan for replacing members during a project’s long duration.
Panel members detailed how clear and transparent internal communication was instrumental to a successful building project. Communication from the general contractor, the OPM and the architect; as well as outward communication from the district administrators to students and parents, is vitally important to a smooth flowing project. Transparency and responsiveness are keys to success.
The Mountain View School project was completed on time and on budget. The panel members explained how they prioritized making timely payments to vendors, used available contracts from OSD and MHEC (including the MSBA’s Collaborative Procurement Program), and provided up-to-date training for maintenance officials to ensure an easy rollover of the new school (with its new and sophisticated systems) once the project was completed.
While lunch was served, Mary Pichetti, MSBA’s Executive Director, interviewed Easthampton’s Interim Superintendent, Maureen Binienda. Mary shared that Maureen is the third superintendent since this building project began. Maureen came on board this past July. Mary inquired about Maureen’s impressions of the new school. Maureen mentioned several standout features in the new school that have impressed her including the quality of the safety features on the premises. She explained that exterior visibility from the administrative offices, careful consideration of the approaches to the building, and security in key areas like the lunchroom and the classrooms were particularly impressive. Maureen shared that she was inspired by how seamlessly integrated the staff are with each other, noting that it is a significant challenge for a district to consolidate schools and create a new culture. She is fond of the inspirational sayings that are interspersed throughout the school’s walls contributing to the joyful learning environment. Lastly, Maureen indicated that she values the fact that main aspects of the District’s Educational Plan are in full operation such as the “push-in” instead of a “pull-out” model for special ed, adding that the school design supports this model very well with small breakout spaces.
After lunch, the design firm of HMFH Architects shared a presentation highlighting the details of their pilot program with Bristol Plymouth Vocational Technical High School to outfit the interior with only healthy materials. Inspired by Harvard University’s Healthier Building Academy (HHBA), HMFH Architects and the MSBA have partnered to understand what types of chemicals go into our public schools. HMFH’s Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School, which is now in construction, is serving as the pilot project for this partnership and the goal is to specify Red List free non-toxic building materials and to avoid chemicals of concern in touch surfaces. As such, we have required that all manufacturers submit HPD’s and EPD’s for the Bristol-Plymouth project. Through this process, the HMFH team researched and vetted hundreds of products in our master specifications and we have found that many are healthy and, in the cases, where they are not, in most instances we have been able to find equal products to replace them.
By eliminating chemicals of concern from our building products we strive to align with the AIA Material Pledge and protect the environment, the health and human rights of workers in the supply chain as well as support a circular economy where buildings can safely be disassembled and recycled for zero-waste construction activities. Because product manufacturers are not required to disclose the chemical makeup of their products it is incredibly difficult to make informed design decisions regarding the safety of building materials.
Products in publicly constructed K-12 schools must be durable, readily available, budget-friendly and most must have three equal products. The MSBA has put forth new incentive points for “going green.” Details on this initiative can be found at the MSBA’s webpage for Green Schools. In summary, a crucial first step toward providing healthy learning environments for all students in the Commonwealth is for the design industry and all school districts to push manufacturers for transparency in all products and drive market change. If we can come together, we can remove all chemicals of concern from the supply chain and make our school environments healthy places to teach and learn.
Continuing the discussion of healthy materials in MSBA schools, Karl Brown, MSBA Design Director, shared updates to the MSBA’s Green Schools policy; which offers additional reimbursement for any project that can achieve levels of indoor air quality that exceed the policy’s required minimum standards using LEED-S and NE-CHPS criteria.
Karl shared that the new energy codes released in July of 2023 encourage the use of increased ventilation systems, electric vehicles, and all-electric systems in new school buildings. He indicated that the MSBA is encouraging school districts and their design teams to specify products that conform to material transparency through product disclosures and to specify products that do not include harmful chemicals.
Chris Alles, Deputy Director of Project Management, and Becca Whidden, Post Occupancy Manager, from the MSBA provided an overview of MSBA's Post Occupancy Evaluation Program including a brief history of the program, the buildings that have received post occupancy evaluations to date, and the general data collection tactics and current and future reporting methods. Also shared were the broad categories involved in post occupancy including Teaching/Learning Environment, Building/Site Environment, Energy Performance, and Operations/Maintenance and some of MSBA's preliminary findings. In addition, building/systems training, and the planning and maintenance of landscaping were presented as potential topics being considered for future events related to MSBA's post occupancy efforts.
By all accounts, the day-long Story of a Building program was a positive and impactful training for district attendees. Based on attendee comments, this MSBA program offered a helpful way to understand how to position themselves to get the most from a well-thought-out school building process. Easthampton’s success in navigating the obstacles that arose and the solid advice shared made a powerful story and training.
Presentation Links:
- Story of a Building Agenda
- Open House Self-Guided TourSheet
- Session 1 & 2 Jill Design Team Panel Discussion
- Session 3 Presentation Healthier Materials HMFH
- Session 3 Presentation MSBA Green Schools Program
- Session 4 Presentation MSBA Post Occupancy Evaluation Program
- Easthampton Mountain View School - Roses and Thorns Video
