New LMS front gets board's OK

Facade's design stays within budget

Friday, Sept. 4, 2009

School board members approved plans earlier this summer for a renovation project at the middle school, but asked school design staff to go back and find a more aesthetically pleasing entrance design that tied in with the school's neighboring buildings — Leonardtown High School and the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center.

"It far surpasses the first design," school board chair Cathy Allen said. "I would have preferred to have done nothing."

Although the new design will cost more, Allen said it is worth it to have the building tie in with the others on the campus, which is just across Route 5 from the heavily visited fairgrounds. "They've done a very nice job," she said of the architect's revision.

The redesigned canopy and front facade will cost about $214,000, or about $100,000 more than the previous design.

Board member Sal Raspa, who said the previous design did not look like a school, praised the redesign. "I think this is a big improvement … It's a nice continuum," between the three neighboring school buildings, he said.

The design incorporates brickwork and the curved canopy design from the other two schools.

The school system hopes to bid and award the project next January and start major construction work once school lets out in June 2010.

The school system asked for a second cost estimate on the overall renovation project, which includes a number of alternates. The new estimate came in close to the original at about $13.3 million. The state has approved $17 million for the project.

The first phase, which will include renovations to the gymnasium, cafeteria, music rooms and entranceway, will be competed by the end of next summer. The second phase would convert the front two pod classroom areas and be completed by the end of 2010. Students will no longer have to walk through one classroom to get to another, as is the case now with the modified pod design. The third phase would be done throughout the first half of 2011 and consist of renovating the remaining two pod areas.

The fourth and fifth phases would be done during the summer and fall of 2011 and include renovations to the media center, courtyard and health suite as well as the computer labs and art rooms. The whole project should be wrapped up by the end of 2011, school officials said.

"I really wish I was a sixth-grader because I would have loved to go to such a beautiful school," said student board member Emily Hall, a senior at Chopticon High School.

jyeatman@somdnews.com