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New Hubbard elementary school to open in fall
By LINDA M. LINONIS
hubbard
About 750 pre- school through fourth-graders in Hubbard Exempted Village School District will start the 2011-12 academic year in a new $14.6 million elementary school.
The construction is part of a three-stage, $56-million project to build new elementary, middle and high schools. The new high school, which cost $22 million, opened in September 2010.
The plan places the state-of-the-art elementary-, middle- and high-schools on one campus. Richard Buchenic, superintendent, credited school-board members of the past with the foresight to buy 67 acres on Hall Avenue for school use.
The building project is unusual in that a new high school building went up and the old one came down to make way for the middle school. Special panels will connect the new high school to the middle school, which will connect to the new elementary school.
Students and teachers won’t have to leave the extended building to access another section including the Hubbard Community Pool. The design also provides more security and protection from the weather. There also will be safeguards to protect the integrity of each school.
Buchenic said various concerns prompted the delay in moving students and staff from the current location at Roosevelt Elementary School, 110 Orchard Ave. Previous plans had called for relocating students and staff to the new school this spring. “We took everything into consideration,” he said. Traffic patterns also need to be worked out.
Buchenic said it “wouldn’t be fair to teachers and students” to hasten a move that would put them in the new school a few weeks before summer vacation. “We want to give teachers time to pack up and move.”
But when the move comes, elementary students and staff will relocate to a modern building. Buchenic said the elementary school features an open courtyard in the center of the building, where an amphitheater also is located. It also has its own gym and cafeteria.
The middle and elementary schools will share a circulation desk in the library; the sections for the different grade levels will be separate.
Roosevelt, which first served as Hubbard High School, was built in 1921 with an addition in 1927 and gym in 1933. It was the high school until 1953. Though modern technology is key in the new school buildings, Buchenic said the legacy of the past will be preserved. The stone arch from Roosevelt eventually will be placed on the walkway of the main entrance to the high school.
Buchenic said there will be “selective demolition” at Roosevelt, where the gym will be kept. There will be an auction of furniture and other equipment at a later date. “Our plans are for the board [of education] offices to go there,” he said. He noted the office will have to move from its current location on Hall Avenue because of space constraints.
The next phase of construction will be the middle school, where the site already is being prepared. That new, $14-million school is projected to be ready by September 2012. There are about 650 fifth- through eighth-graders.
Facing West Liberty Street, the school campus also will have a track complex, girls’ softball field and parking.