By Carol P. Bartold

Dec. 21, 2016: The ability to deliver a 21st-century education to Bronxville School students stands at the center of the school's capital plan development. 

The Bronxville Board of Education, at its regular meeting on December 15, heard the considerations and factors that are part of the district's capital plan, including building capacity, how best to configure and reconfigure spaces to promote the flexible nature of a 21st-century education, and needed repairs and refurbishments resulting from a building condition survey. 

Russ Davidson, managing principal, and Erik Wilson, associate principal, of KG&D Architects addressed building capacity and the results of the school building conditions survey. KG&D is the district architect.

A first step in looking to expand educational opportunities based on the dispositions of The Bronxville Promise, Davidson and Wilson noted, is to determine the school building's current capacity in order to justify additions or expansions. "If you're going to talk about spending hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on changing the building," Davidson said, "you need to know if your school is too big or too small."

Although KG&D's building capacity study showed that the school building, as it exists today, is almost at capacity in the use of available space, Davidson pointed out that enrollment projections do not indicate any dramatic increases or decreases in the total student body population. However, he added, the school is not desperately short of space.

“We do believe there are a lot of opportunities to make better use of space,” Davidson stated. A possibility, Wilson said, is to remodel and reorganize space so it meets the needs and interests of students and teachers throughout the school.

Changing instructional practices, such as increasing student group collaboration opportunities, offering spaces for students engaged in independent study, and designing spaces for project-based learning can result in more room use in the school’s existing spaces.

Jay Litman, principal and studio director, Ellen Woodsbie, associate designer, and Tracee Worley, education studio director, all of the architectural firm Fielding Nair International, have examined ways that redesigned learning environments can bring the school building more in line with the educational vision.

Common themes the Fielding Nair representatives heard in parent-student-teacher focus groups and in an educational visioning workshop with school leadership include the desire to break down learning silos, or self-contained subject areas, to establish a seamless collaboration among teachers in various disciplines, the need for more access to natural light, and a preference for more flexibility in learning spaces.

Teachers, Litman noted, believe that facilities for interdisciplinary learning, distance learning, team teaching, outdoor learning, and independent study are among the spaces needed in the school to support realization of The Bronxville Promise.

"Education is a social interaction process," Litman said, "and if you don't create great social interaction spaces, you put a damper on some of the education."

Part of creating those spaces will involve dealing with the results of the building condition survey. Davidson reported that survey items the district must deal with include roof replacements, window improvements, health office renovation and expansion, guidance relocation and renovation, replacing athletic fields that have reached the end of their useful lives, and upgrades to the elementary school playground.

Survey items the district should incorporate in its capital plan include front entry renovation, interior and gymnasium ventilation improvements, corridor finish upgrades, and the Pondfield Road and Meadow Avenue portions of the landscape master plan.

The next step in the district’s capital plan involves budget development and refinement.

"I think it's important to see these things as they connect to each other," Superintendent Dr. David Quattrone said of the elements of the developing capital plan. "There would be much value added if we could connect some of them and have them serve multiple purposes."

Pictured here (L to R):  Russell Davidson, president, and Erik Wilson, associate principal, KG&D Architects.

Photo by A. Warner