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Medford Public Schools holds community session on high school feasibility study, seeks feedback on 29 design options
Summary
Medford Public Schools hosted a community meeting to gather feedback on a high school feasibility study. Attendees used hands-on tools — including vision cards and 'pom-pom' priority tables — as the team narrows options ahead of a June submission and aims to open a new building in fall 2030.
Medford Public Schools convened a community session to gather public feedback on a high school feasibility study that officials said is now entering the "preferred schematic support" phase. The meeting introduced hands-on activities to help residents weigh trade-offs across multiple design alternatives.
The Moderator said the meeting is part of a phased process and urged broad participation, noting, "Right now, we're in the middle of feasibility study" and that the project team’s next submission is due at the end of June. That submission will narrow the range of options under consideration.
Presenters laid out participation tools for the evening, including a postcard-sized "voice and vision" card (available in multiple languages) and priority tables where attendees place pom poms into jars representing major priorities. The Presenter said the exercise is intended to create a community "heat map" of preferences and described nine tables grouped into three overarching alternatives for the design.
Project staff emphasized that technical experts are part of the meeting: "We have structural engineers, we have HVAC engineers," the Presenter said, explaining that different facilitators will lead discussions focused on technical and programmatic relationships in the building.
Officials told attendees the team hopes to open the building in fall 2030 but cautioned the schedule depends on which option is chosen. "We're looking to open the building in fall 2030," the Moderator said, "the exact date somewhat going to depend on which one of those 29 different options or what version of that we end up with." The team said some options will be faster to complete than others.
The Presenter noted the priority exercise had already been used with the building committee and high school staff earlier in the week as a way to test options and capture staff and student perspectives. Attendees were invited to join future building committee meetings, which staff described as open to the public.
Next steps: project staff said they will compile community input from the session and use it to help narrow options before the June submission; no votes or formal actions were taken at the meeting.
