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Manassas Park officials outline plans for school

Manassas Park school officials are envisioning a new elementary school that will be good for both the environment and for education

By Amanda Stewart
astewart@potomacnews.com
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

School officials and School Board members unveiled their latest plans for Cougar Upper Elementary School in a work session with the City Council on Monday.

The new school will be built on the current Cougar Elementary School campus to house the third, fourth and fifth grades. A second new building will be built for the pre-kindergarten program. Both buildings will include green elements designed to make them environmentally-friendly and other features such as small classrooms designed to accommodate the schools' educational programs.

City Council members asked for an update on the project, in part because of the project's rising price tag and growing size.

When the school was first proposed in October 2006, school officials estimated the total cost of the new elementary school and pre-kindergarten buildings to be $27.5 million for a 108,400-square project.

"At that time we were working with the best information available to us," School Board Chairman Michael Johnson said Monday. "But we had no drawings or plans yet."

By this month, plans had solidified more and estimated construction costs rose to $33 million for a total 132,500 square feet for the two buildings, Johnson said.

Current plans are for a three-story upper elementary school, connected by an outdoor breezeway to a one-story pre-kindergarten facility and the existing Cougar Elementary, which will house kindergarten, first and second grades.

The most recent plan adds a few new elements to the school, but also takes a few away, Johnson said.

In the original plans, the upper elementary school was going to share a kitchen with the existing Cougar Elementary School.

But school officials decided it would be more practical to build a kitchen in the new school, Johnson said.

That addition increased the size of building, but reductions were made in other areas.

A fitness center, health room and two pre-kindergarten classes included in the original plans for the school have been eliminated and the gymnasium, some stairwells and some administrative offices have been reduced in size.

City Council members said they were satisfied with the building, as long as the school division could afford it under the current revenue-sharing agreement between the two bodies. In the revenue-sharing agreement, the School Board gets 57 percent of the city council's uncommitted revenue each year.

"It's a beautiful building and if it fits in your budget, I have no problem with," City Council member Fran Kassinger said during Monday's meeting.

School officials maintained that the building fits into their five-year budget, based on revenue estimates provided by the city.

Also during the meeting, representatives from VMDO Architects discussed aspects of the school design intended to benefit the environment and student learning.

School officials and architects are considering several design features that would make the new school a green school, including using daylight to light much of the school, using geothermal heating and cooling techniques, growing vegetated roofs, and harvesting rainwater to do things like flush toilets in the school.

The green elements may cost more in the beginning, but should eventually save the school system money, said Bob Moje, with VMDO.

"There is an increase cost of zero to 3 percent, but then there's an average return of ten times the initial investment," Moje said Monday.

Other elements of the building's design grew from the school's educational program, which calls for small spaces for pull-out programs and small group work and a large performance area for the fifth-grade band program.

School officials hope to begin construction on the new buildings in September of this year. The buildings are slated to open in November 2008.

VMDO Architects was founded in 1976 and is the youngest firm to receive the T. David Fitz-Gibbon Virginia Architecture Award, the most prestigious honor given by the Virginia Society of American Institute of Architects.

For further information, interview, and photography opportunities in reference to this project and VMDO Architects, please contact William Bishop at 434.296.5684, email at bishop@vmdo.com.