February 2010 Futures Meeting Notes

Attending the meeting were: Teri Buda, Karen Campbell, Leanne Clancy, Russ Endo (by phone), Wilson Felter, Emily Fisher, Emily Harmar, Nita Hopkins, Koof Kalkstein, Claire Lomax, Ed Marshall, David Moos, Sharon Mullally, Kathleen Walls. Two architects from DIGSAU also attended the meeting.

After a moment of silence Koof summarized the evolving structure and process of the committee’s work. Focus has now shifted from work on program and enrollment to master planning the campus and development of resources to achieve plans. Most of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of master planning, led by Jamie Unkefer of DIGSAU, with an hour at the end devoted to initial ideas on development.

Master Planning Update and Discussion:  The facilities sub-group (now known as the Master Planning sub-group) has been working with the architects since early in the New Year, meeting on a bi-weekly basis. Jamie began the discussion by reviewing the process and work done so far, which has included detailed mapping and measuring of the property and facilities, review of previous master planning, Community Design Collaborative, Futures committee work and a number of other sources.  He also described the gatherings to be held in the next week on school grounds to solicit input from community members about specific priorities and needs. The school has publicized these meetings through e-mail, the Lunch Box Local, Facebook and fliers.

Jamie then started a discussion of the past, present and future of the school. The past was viewed through the lens of changes in the physical property owned by the meeting/school, changes in the immediate surrounding property and changes in scope and age range of the school. This provided useful context for understanding how the school has gradually expanded its footprint on the block.  This also highlighted the increasing variety of physical access to the school.

Shifting to the present, the group discussed perspectives provided by the survey of the property and some analyses of its use, evaluated by purpose, age group and capacity. The data suggests that the school provides classroom space broadly within national norms, with physical education and science being somewhat space limited.  It also identified shifting use patterns, with greater concentration of activity in the Armat street (‘Middle School’) building. A great deal of foot travel occurs across campus linking the lower school to the Armat building and the group discussed the pro’s and con’s of this. Kids of all grades rubbing shoulders every day through this travel helps reinforce a ‘one school feel.’

This led the group to a discussion of emerging fundamental questions, including further evaluation of facility priorities, how to address physical accessibility concerns, greening of the campus, with reference back to the comprehensive work of the Design Collaborative. The group also debated various ideas regarding ‘the’ entrance to the school and drop-off and pick-up issues. The master planning process will continue and, building on the meeting and community input, DIGSAU will be creating some initial design possibilities for review at our next meeting.

Resource Development:  After dinner, which featured continued lively interaction on design issues, Emily Harmar led the group in an initial discussion of developing funding and related resources. The master planning process will provide a multi-decade snapshot of changes and improvements to the school, while development will focus on what resources can be developed over the next several years. The development sub-group has developed an initial conceptual framework to define the potential scope of development made up of: Truths, Reinforcing and Constraining Forces and Implications.

Several key points were discussed, including: the likely large size of the financial resource needs; the success of the inaugural campaign; the potential for support from foundations, institutions and the community, as well as our existing base of support from alumni, friends and Friends, and parents; and the need for increased human resources (both paid and volunteer) required to achieve success. Suggestions were also made to try to attract interest from new parents and explore private/public angles to developing facilities.

The development sub-group will be creating a plan for all this over the next several months and will provide an interim view of it at the next Futures Committee meeting.