SCHOOLS Architects get input from pupils

Pupils are concerned about space and whether they have to rush to classes.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- From surveillance cameras to locker size, a group of eighth-graders questioned an architect about preliminary plans for the township's new $26 million middle school.
"What impressed me was they had very practical interests," said architect John DeFrance of Olsavsky-Jaminet Architects of Youngstown. DeFrance met with seven eighth-graders -- four from Frank Ohl Middle School and three from Austintown Middle School -- for about 90 minutes Wednesday in the school board offices to discuss the preliminary plans and any suggested changes.
Some school officials also attended the discussion.
The pupils should be in high school when the new school is slated to open in 2006.
Austintown Middle School pupil Becky Ortenzio, 14, said she liked what she saw in the plans, while Andrea Pavlichich, 14, an eighth-grader at Frank Ohl, said she was impressed with the size of the 174,668 square-foot school.
Likes the space
"There's a lot of space to move around in," Andrea said. "It's not so claustrophobic."
Olsavsky-Jaminet is the project designer for the construction of the new middle school, slated to be built on South Raccoon Road. DeFrance also was slated to preside over a meeting Wednesday night to collect residents' opinions on the plans.
Many of the eighth-graders' questions were about the new school's locker rooms, gyms and other athletic facilities. In response to their questions, DeFrance told the pupils that the school is slated to use what is now a nearby practice soccer field as an athletic field; the school's two gyms could each be divided in half for boy's and girl's classes; pupils most likely will have to cross a hallway to get from the locker rooms to the gyms; and that the gym locker rooms will have lockers that are 16 inches square, 36 inches deep, and with an open-cage cover.
"That might be a problem for girls," Andrea said, noting that some girls may not want classmates seeing what's in their gym lockers. DeFrance said he and school officials will consider using solid locker covers.
No rushing?
Austintown Middle School eighth-grader Joe Treedy, 14, asked DeFrance if the school will be designed so that pupils won't have to rush between classes, while J.D. Kubacki, 14, a Frank Ohl pupil, wanted to know about the location of hall lockers and surveillance cameras.
DeFrance responded that classrooms are designed to be grouped together by grade, so pupils shouldn't have to rush, and that the school is set to have lockers that are 50 inches tall, 12 inches wide, and 12 inches deep and built into the walls of the hallways.
DeFrance also noted that surveillance cameras will be throughout the school, but not in individual classrooms, locker rooms or restrooms.
DeFrance is expected to use the pupils' comments to make revisions to the plans, which are scheduled to be finalized by late summer so construction can begin. He noted that Frank Ohl eighth-grader Alex Brinkman and Austintown Middle School eighth-grader Charlie Stevens also surveyed about 160 of their fellow pupils for their opinions about the new school, and that the surveys will be used to help revise the plans.
hill@vindy.com