ECS Expansion Update

At the May 2010 PCO Meeting, Principal Jon McCann was present to discuss the school expansion, the effects of a split campus on ECS families, and next year's kindergarten accomodations. He provided answers to some frequently asked questions and they are provided here in writing for those unable to attend the meeting.

 

 

ECS Regent Square facility will need to be upgraded to accommodate a middle school population and brought in line with ADA standards. Future alterations to the building will not require a variance.

 

A formal community meeting about the Park Place facility is scheduled for June 3^rd at Waverly Church. ECS will submit a change-of-use application to the City of Pittsburgh.  The Park Place School will need internal renovation to return it to school use. A traffic engineering company is now collecting traffic data as a baseline measure of current traffic flow. A landscape company has been employed to plan outside classroom space and natural play areas.

 

Q - What will happen here (at the current location)?

A - Park Place will become our K - 3 ECS Lower School.  Grades 4 through 8 will be housed at our current building. For the 2010-2011 only, incoming kindergarteners will be housed at the Shady Lane pre-school facility. The school has rented the space at Shady Lane for two years and will utilize the space during year 2 for professional development.

 

Q - Will there be two kindergarten classrooms at Shady Lane for the 2010/2011 school year?

A - Yes.  There are currently 11 full classrooms at Park Place.  Additional internal space will be used for school support services. We would like to have three classrooms at each grade level, but the PP building design may dictate only two kindergarten classrooms.

 

Q - How does it affect the ECS school culture if we have a large influx of children in first/second?

A - The influx would represent 20 students at first grade.  If we were to increase the size of our kindergartens from 18 to 19 that number drops to 18. Those 18 students would be spread over three first grade classrooms.

 

Q - How will students access Frick Park from Park Place? 

A - We will develop protocols for getting the little ones across safely. ECS will define crossing areas and that will benefit the whole neighborhood. ECS hopes to work with Shady Side Academy to share costs associated with traffic mitigation. 

We are also in the process of getting a school zone on Braddock for the current Regent Square building.

 

Q - Will that be the long-term plan - to split schools?

A - Yes - K through 3 at one building (Park Place) and 4 through 8 at the other (current ECS school).

 

Q - What is the rationale for splitting the school at those grade levels?

A - (1) Facility - The Park Place campus has sufficient space for most of the outdoor needs of the younger grades. (2) K- 3 is a natural developmental divide. The ECS Lower School will be a facility that can have specific early childhood K-3 design qualities. 

 

Q - Why put the younger students at Park Place?

A - Our current facility offers more space in which to expand and add facilities without adding capacity. We need a middle-school gymnasium and specialty instructional spaces to meet older students' needs. The Park Place building can be designed to support K through 3 programming.

 

Q - Will we get a kitchen?

A - The ECS strategic plan includes the installation of a full kitchen.  We are looking at the PP facility to see if a suitable space exists.

 

Q - What is the plan for a kitchen?

A - As soon as we get a chance to renovate a building that offers space for a kitchen, we will do it. The kitchen could be placed at the Park Place facility. If that were done, food could be transported to the Regent Square location.

 

Q - What is the timeline?

A - The 2011-2012 school year is the proposed opening year for Park Place .

 

 Q -What will the two buildings be named?

A - ECS Lower School and ECS Upper School.  However, the Park Place building is on the Historic Register; consequently, signage would be regulated to some degree.

 

Q - When will you start paying the lease at Park Place?

A - When we take occupancy. We will also pay development costs.

 

Q - Could the PCO fund the kitchen project?

A - It is a possibility. We will also need to put in a natural play space and garden at Park Place.

 

Q - What about the school administration? Will there be a headmaster and a second lower headmaster?

A -  The current leadership model will remain in place to ensure continuity of school culture.

 

Q - What about special programs (gifted, etc.)? Will they be at both buildings or will you transport students?

A - Staff will move from one building to the other as needed.  Consistent with our mission, we will require faculty to walk or bike ride between buildings.

 

Q - What about dropping off and picking up kids, E-Day, and bussing next year?

A - Bussing will remain the same. The buses will stop at the current building. For families in which there are siblings, we will transport students between buildings via an environmentally-friendly vehicle.  All options are open to parents.  Parents may drop off at Shady Lane or have students bus to main campus. Students wishing to take advantage of E-Day will be transported to main campus with bus students at the conclusion of the day

 

Q - What will happen with E-day with upper and lower campuses?

A - We have not decided, but we will work closely with Mrs. Abeshouse to come up with a plan that meets families' needs. She is making it a more rigid program next year to keep less complex to administer. We will increase the capacity of E-day as the school grows.

 

Q - What about when we have Park Place? Will there be separate busses?

A - We will modify dismissal times to facilitate dual pick up and drop off. There will still be only one bus for each family (siblings will ride together).

 

Q - If we have kids at two buildings, how will we handle pickups?

A - There will be staggered dismissal times.

 

Q - What are the plans for getting kindergarteners to the park next year from Shady Lane?

A - We can use environmentally friendly vans to transport students to various areas of the park.  At the kindergarten level a lot of the environmental content centers on the immediate environment.  The park, however, remains central to the curriculum and we will continue use Frick Park as a teaching tool. 

 

Q - Would the lower school come here to do hikes?

A - Absolutely. We want to use shared resources as much as possible. One downside of the split-campus setup is that we will not have immediate access to 8^th graders as teachers/mentors for our little ones.

 

Q - Once we have Park Place, we will move kindergarten from Shady Lane. Will you move any other grades?

A - We will try to avoid moving any grades for just one year.  The 2011-2012 school year will definitely see our K-2 population occupy the Lower School facility.

 

Q - What are we going to do to relieve the compression here for the next year?   

A - We are looking into renting some storage space. We are considering renting office space in Regent Square and/or getting one trailer.  It is easier for our faculty and students to operate in a slightly squeezed situation when a light exists at the end of the tunnel. 

 

Q - What is the budget and timeline for Park Place?

 A - The lease will be competitive and well within budget.

 

Q - What is the length of the lease at the current school?

A - The lease runs for 30 years.  The current lease through School House Finance is a competitive lease. The Board may be able to raise the money to purchase the building but the SHF lease rate is an attractive rate that has no costs associated until the school takes occupancy. Long term, we would like to move to a mortgage, but a lease works well right now in the early years of the school's life. There are outside sources of funding available that want to support our school in terms of facilities.