Pawtucket committee hears detailed design for new high school; demolition to begin in March

Designers gave the Pawtucket School Committee a detailed schematic and fly-through of the new Pawtucket High School on the McCoy Stadium site and outlined a near-term schedule that calls for site mobilization in February and demolition beginning in March.

Megan Havilla, project lead with the design and construction team, told the committee schematic design documents are complete and the team is preparing pricing; the pricing set is due back around Jan. 15 and will inform next-year budget reconciliation. "We are going to start to see some activity on site and we want to be able to prepare the public for this," Havilla said.

The lead designer, Jonathan, ran the committee through a fly-through of the schematic. He described a two-campus plan with a central cafeteria-learning commons and embedded media center, 16 "small learning communities" organized around collaborative spaces, and Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways interspersed across the building (cosmetology, culinary with a public restaurant, automotive, construction, graphic design and others). "This new Beacon of Hope for your students" was the phrase Jonathan used to summarize the team's intent for the building.

The design emphasizes community access and separable zones: a north community entrance for public-facing CTE programs, a south entrance with a family resource center and food pantry, and independent access points for Performing Arts and athletics so evening events can occur with secure separation from daytime school operations.

On schedule, Gordon Ziel of the project team summarized milestones: schematic pricing due mid-January, site mobilization in February and demolition starting in March. In Q&A, the contractor said demolition could take two to three months and that demolition materials will be handled on site: most of the concrete will be crushed and reused as fill under roads and hardscapes, but "we can't use it under structural" elements, and only a portion of painted or contaminated material can be reused. The project team estimated at least 60% of stadium concrete could stay on site in crushed form.

Committee members requested a financing timeline so the new committee and city know when bond draws and related financing actions will be required. The project team agreed to provide that schedule to the committee record.

Next steps: the team will reconcile pricing and return with a budget update in mid-January, prepare public communications ahead of mobilization, and proceed with demolition and ground improvements once financing and permitting milestones are met.