New building concepts shared with board

Architects presented drawings for a new elementary school to the Amherst Exempted Village School Board on Sept. 25.

According to Project Manager Aaron Rodebaugh and Design Manager Rodwell King from GPD Group in Akron and Cleveland, the overall design includes bright color accents so children will want to come to school.

Also, the classroom spaces include garage doors to open into a common shared space for teacher collaboration, Rodebaugh said.

The preschool through grade three school building is planned for the Harris site at the Amherst Junior High Campus, he said.

Rather than settling the building next to homes in the area, architects moved the structure farther north on school property out of respect for neighbors, Rodebaugh said.

The board of education office is planned on the northeast side of the new school, along with a garden, he said.

And a bus loop serves both the junior high and the elementary schools, Rodebaugh said.

The bus loop has the opportunity to be gated, King said.

“We plan on the bus parking lot to be double striped so in case of an event at either school, there can be overflow parking,” he said.

Traffic patterns depend on the school building, Rodebaugh said.

For example, for the elementary school, buses enter from Milan Avenue and passenger vehicles from Lake Avenue, he said. It reverses for the junior high.

The bus would drop off students at the “back door” of the new building, but students would enter the cafeteria, Rodebaugh said.

Parents would drop off students at the front door near the office on the south side, he said.

An operable partition between student dining and a gymnasium enables accommodation of a larger crowd for special events, Rodebaugh said.

The stage is near the music room, so teachers can prepare students for the show, he said.

The portion of the building with classrooms includes a second floor for the older students with art and music rooms on each floor, Rodebaugh said.

The design is not set yet, he said. Most of the design firms up by a meeting in December, with a guaranteed maximum price ready by February along with 75 percent of the construction documents.

Site work could begin during the winter for an early start installing utilities in the ground, Rodebaugh said.

Demolitions of Shupe and Harris elementary schools begin next week.

Dates and times of a First Bite fundraiser changed because of extra abatement issues in the Harris building and shorter daylight in the fall.

Superintendent Steve Sayers said the new times for operating equipment to demolish the Shupe and Harris elementary school buildings include:

• Shupe: 6 p.m., Oct. 4, at 600 Shupe Ave. in Amherst.

• Harris: 6 p.m., Oct. 11, at 393 S. Lake St. in Amherst.

The names of persons to operate the equipment to take the first bite will be drawn the day of the event, Sayers said.