Throughout the election season in the spring, we talked about how co-location make sense for Duxbury by addressing two schools in one big project, maintaining separate identities while sharing certain common functions. Now, as we seek to appropriate construction funds for the project, there have been some additional questions about the practical issues of sharing a building. A you read this, you may wish to reference the floor plans as published here: Renderings, Site Plans, Floor Plans and More.
The long "main street" corridor connects the two school wings and the common areas. It runs the full-length of the school, from the high school entrance to the middle school entrance, and it separates the side with the academic wings from the side with the shared/community components.
When students ride to school by bus -- and middle school and high school students have been riding the bus together for years without incident -- they are dropped at the high school entrance. Students enter the building, and the older student peel off into the high school wing, while the younger students continue down to the middle school wing. When students are dropped at school by parents, they are dropped at the middle school entrance. Younger student peel off into the middle school wing while older students continue down the main street to the high school. All this happens within full view of the administration offices of both the middle school and high school. (High school students who drive themselves would be walking into the building at the high school entrance after parking across the street.)
The U-shaped corridors that run through each wing of the building can be closed, thus containing students in their respective areas. This layout also makes it possible for hallways on each floor in each wing to be monitored during class changes by two staff members as there are clear sight lines of two hallways from any of the four corners. Hallways will also have security cameras, and students are required to have a pass from a teacher to leave a classroom.
The plans call for two separate gyms, fitness rooms, and sets of locker rooms, one each for the middle school and high school. There is also music space that will be shared.
The middle school and high school have different bell schedules, so even when students are moving between academic wings and common areas, they would not be moving at the same time. Middle school students would be in class while the high school does a class chance, and visa versa.
The two most "common" areas of the proposed new building are the cafeteria and the library. In each case, they are located toward the middle school side of the building. This is because, generally speaking, middle school students "travel" less during the course of their day, and this maintains that lesser travel time. High school students are more accustomed to traveling a little further between classes.
The cafeteria has two entrances, two "scramble" areas, and two seating areas. The divider in the cafeteria can be removed to make a larger area, but on a day-to-day basis, kids will be separated. The middle school entrance to the cafeteria is toward the middle school building entrance. The high school entrance to the cafeteria is closer to the high school end of the main street, and in view of the middle school administration offices.
Similarly, the library on the 3rd floor has two entrances: one closer to the middle school entrance end of the building primarily for the middle school students, and one closer to the high school wing primarily for the high school students.
It may also be helpful to understand how the library is used. As the repository of knowledge in its books and data center, the library is a tremendous resource -- but it is not used in the same way the library is used at Chandler and at Alden. Students don't have regular library time as in the elementary schools, and it is not allowed to be used as a social gathering space (indeed, neither the high school or middle school programs have study halls that would use it as such -- it is only used when supervised). At the middle school and high school level, teachers schedule time in the library for their classes for specific purposes, and students are well-supervised. In addition, there are middle school and high school "classrooms" within the library itself for further student sorting.
High school students will not travel "through" the middle school to get to the cafeteria or library. They will travel down the main street; they will not enter the U-shaped corridor that contains the middle school classes.
We learned from the principals of the combined middle school and high school in Ipswich that there is much self-segregation that happens with students -- but in areas where the age groups do mix, the older students tend to act better around the younger students. There is more mixing of age groups in Ipswich than there will be in our co-located school; their cafeteria, for example, is fully shared. The Ipswich principals tell us that they have never had an issue related to the disparate age groups in the 10 years their combined school has been open -- discipline in all age groups improved. (Ipswich Principals Talk About a Middle School and High School Under One Roof)
The co-located model is expected to promote positive interactions between the two populations -- where appropriate, of course. Many middle school students already take music lessons from high schools students, and the scheduling of these lessons will only become easier. Similarly, it will be easier to make cross school contact for academic tutoring between students.
Easier communication between the middle school and high school is expected to further improve the transition of students from the middle school to high school in the co-located building as well.
The co-located model is best of two worlds: two distinct schools in one project with shared spaces for efficiency where it makes sense. Populations can be kept apart in their respective academic wings and are supervised when interacting.
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