The WW-P School District Central Offices, long housed at 505 Village Road West, West Windsor, will be moving to Village School, at 601 New Village Road, West Windsor.
The Board of Education has approved a significant expansion of Village School, which, along with the central administrative staff, will become the new home of the Community Education Department, currently located at Millstone River School in Plainsboro, the Special Services Department, now located at 506 Plainsboro Road, and the guidance director’s office. In addition, Village School will gain six new classrooms, a new registration area, a 2,500-square-foot multi-purpose room, a conference room, an occupational/physical therapy room, and more.
George Duthie, principal architect from the firm of Fraytak, Veisz, Hopkins, and Duthie, presented initial plans for the expansion at the June 11 board meeting. “The central office staff will be housed upstairs, in secure office suites, which will be separate from the rest of the school, as well as the six new classrooms which will be built on the second floor. An additional elevator will be added to provide access to this space.”
Community Ed, Special Services, and the guidance space will be on the first floor, and space will also be available for outside groups to use.
“Village School will be an energy-efficient building, with lots of daylight coming in through large glass window panes. We will also be installing sun control measures to protect from heat,” Duthrie said. In addition, the Village expansion will provide additional building security. A new registration area will be constructed which will allow for additional check-in procedures for anyone entering and exiting the school; and there will be a separate student drop off and pick-up area, under a covered walkway, located in the back of the school.
The addition will be located at the back of Village school, on the side facing the Grover Farmstead. Other than modifications to the registration area, none of the construction will involve the existing building. A portion of the fields will be lost to the construction, and a new drainage basin will be constructed. A parking lot will be added next to the addition, adjacent to the new student drop-off entrance.
The plans presented at the board meeting are not the final ones; at this point, the construction documents are roughly 50 percent complete. It is anticipated that the documents will be submitted for review by Monday, July 22, the bidding process will begin on September 10, and that construction will begin in November. The project is expected to be completed by June, 2015.
