After four years of planning, utilization studies, and construction, the state-of-the-art $13 million addition at Village School will open in time for the upcoming school year. The new space on 321 Village Road East will result in a change in grade configuration for two schools, with third grade education shifting from Town Center to Millstone.
A videotaped conversation between superintendent David Aderhold and district architect George Duthie on the addition can be streamed on the district website, www.ww-p.org.
The new addition centralizes administrative offices previously based in different locations. Central registration, community education, the technology department, and guidance and special services will now be at the Village School.
The buildings and grounds department will move from High School North to the current administrative offices at 505 Village Road West.
The district also gains eight classrooms, space for occupational and physical therapy, and two speech classrooms. The added classrooms free up space at Dutch Neck, Town Center, and Millstone River schools as well.
“We gained tremendous opportunity and flexibility,” Aderhold says in the video. “Essentially we are finding ways to maximize resources in the district.”
All told, 120 staff members will move, and five buildings will be impacted.
Aside from the administrative centralization, improving the special needs program for early childhood was another goal. Previously, there were classrooms scattered at Dutch Neck, Millstone River, Town Center, and Wicoff.
“The continuity of care for students was not necessarily being met,” Aderhold says. “What we’ve been able to do through this particular addition is realign services for students in certain special needs programs for pre-K through second grade at Town Center School.”
The district also considered current and future student enrollment. During the planning stages, growing enrollment from the multi-phase Princeton Terrace development on Clarksville Road strained resources at Dutch Neck and Village schools.
In terms of future student enrollment, Aderhold mentions the Howard Hughes and Transit Village developments, calling them “unknown entities in terms of how many children it will yield.”
The district wanted to avoid having to build a new school entirely, ultimately deciding to construct an addition at Village School due to land availability and the school’s central location.
According to Duthie, the building has a compact footprint with numerous energy and cost efficiency features. Like Grover Middle School, the addition has a geothermal system for more energy efficient heating and air conditioning. A building control system programs the building’s LED lighting and is connected to occupancy sensors that can reduce energy usage when a space is not in use.
