Millis building committee narrows options, leans toward AR 4A as preferred school solution

The Millis School Building Committee on Wednesday, Dec. 11, reviewed educational-program comparisons of multiple renovation and addition options and indicated a preference for option AR 4A — a larger reconfiguration that would meet Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) classroom-size standards — while agreeing to narrow the choices presented to the public at upcoming forums.

Committee members, school administrators and the project team from Vertex walked through how each option maps the core educational program into existing and proposed building “containers.” Consultant Chris (project presenter) and other members of the design team showed that renovation-only options (R1, R2 and R3) and the smaller add/reno options (AR 5 and AR 6) generally leave many classrooms undersized for MSBA guidelines, while AR 4A would reconfigure and add space to bring all classrooms closer to target sizing.

Why it matters: Committee members and educators said undersized classrooms and limited collaborative and special-education spaces are a current problem that will worsen with projected enrollment growth. That program shortfall is the principal reason the MSBA invited the town into the facilities review process and is central to whether the state will reimburse part of construction costs.

Most of the meeting focused on a slide-based “container” exercise that assigned core program elements — classrooms, science labs, special-education space, teacher planning/collaboration rooms — to the footprint of each option. The project team and school administrators said AR 5 would add a STEM wing and AR 6 would add a new gym and…