There are some things we do know and some things we don’t know about the new elementary school to be constructed in the Hamilton Southeastern School District.  We know it will hold about 700 students, will house grades kindergarten through 4th, it will be located along Cyntheanne Road near HSE Intermediate / Junior High –  and the budget will be $22 million.

But there is a lot we do not know.  For example, the new school still has no name.  Before the CSO Architectural firm gets down to work on the precise design, a process of listening is going on.  Tuesday morning, the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board held a work session with Amy Yurko, an architect with Brain Spaces in Chicago, who specializes in school designs.

Yurko shared with the board some of the suggestions she has heard from school staff members about the design of the new structure.  On major issue was how much size the kindergarten and other grade classrooms should be allocated.

One concept discussed was Inquiry Based Learning, which requires more open spaces and open windows.

One question that is unknown is the future of standardized testing in the state of Indiana.   Will the new school need a compute lab with securely wired stations to allow for secure testing?  No one knows, but there could be flex space built into the design to handle that, if needed.

There was discussion of whether the school should be built as a one-story structure or with two-stories.  Pluses and minuses of each option were discussed, but no decision was made.

The architects will be getting input from others before getting down to business and putting together the details of the new elementary school.

“The location of this building is in the epicenter of growth in our district, and will be the epicenter for quite a few years,” said Assistant Superintendent Mike Beresford.