Advisory team maps priorities for reimagined Medford High School, schedules March recommendations

Medford — Designers and community advisers reviewing the feasibility study for the reimagined Medford High School spent their second advisory meeting refining priorities for a project targeted to open in 2030.

"We are in the feasibility study…we are looking to open the school in the 2030," said Matt Bryce, an architect and the principal in charge for SMMA, the project's design firm. Bryce opened the meeting by saying the advisory teams would categorize recommendations as green (givens), yellow (to consider) or red (not pursued) before forwarding them to the building committee.

Rosemary Park, an SMMA educational planner, summarized five priorities drawn from earlier visioning and outreach: equity, inclusion and belonging; wellness and staff respite; student identity and visible CTE and arts programs; flexible, future-ready learning environments; and stronger community connections. Park said designers will illustrate how physical adjacencies and program choices can reduce stigma for special‑education and English‑learner students by embedding services within learning communities.

Participants pressed for detail on a number of operational and program questions. A school representative asked whether the plan assumes shared classrooms rather than individual teacher rooms; Bryce said that assumption aligns with the MSBA grant process and its efficiency model. Designers acknowledged the MSBA assumption and said they will test curriculum and schedule needs to confirm classroom counts.

The team also previewed program elements including an auditorium of roughly 1,000 seats and multifunctional dining and media spaces that could be used by the broader community. Designers noted choices about centralizing services or maintaining multiple on‑site facilities will be part of the next round of recommendations.

On process, the team set a next advisory meeting in March to convert advisory feedback into an itemized recommendation list for the building committee. Materials from the meeting and a recording will be posted on YouTube for public review.

What happens next

Designers said they will produce a line‑item set of recommendations and a traffic‑light (green/yellow/red) categorization for the March meeting; those recommendations will be used by the building committee to inform whether the project proceeds as an addition/renovation or a new construction option.