The Concord Middle School Building Committee Report: Space Summary, Sustainability, and
Communications
Space Summary Recommendations from the CMSBC Design Subcommittee Accepted
Members of the Concord Middle School Building Committee (CMSBC) voted unanimously to accept a space summary recommendation for the proposed new school building. The proposal, developed by the CMSBC Design Subcommittee, supports the project’s educational plan, including appropriate academic
spaces for the team model of education delivery. This approach enables teams of core content teachers to share the instruction for a group of students, enhancing social relationships as well as interdisciplinary and cooperative learning. Delivering a new building that facilitates the team model was identified by
teachers, administrators, as well as members of the School and Building Committees as a priority for the new building. A modified team approach is currently being utilized in the two existing middle school buildings.
In addition to classrooms, the space summary outlines critical elements for a middle school such as space for performing and visual arts, physical education, teacher planning, an auditorium, a media center/library, and lunch programs. Recommendations on these spaces were informed by the educational
plan, community input on both academic and community use, subject matter expert input from the project’s design team as well as the expertise of individual CMSBC members. The community input was garnered from multiple public forums, listening sessions with more than fifteen community organizations,
public testimony at the CMSBC meetings, and correspondence to the Committee.
The Design Subcommittee worked with the design team to ensure that there was maximum flexibility with all spaces. Highlights of the space summary recommendations include a 7,000sf gymnasium, a onegrade level auditorium, a 3,400sf media center/library, a 1,600sf alternate physical education space and a
1,000sf maker space.
The 7,000sf gymnasium would be configured to support one MIAA regulation-size court for a game scenario with fan space or two basketball courts for practice. Following deliberations at the CMSBC meeting on March 4th, the design team was charged with exploring incremental increases in the size of the
gymnasium up to adding 6,000sf which would allow for two regulation basketball courts. That analysis will include how enlarging the gymnasium would impact the educational plan as well as how the new school will comply with local regulations limiting impervious surface lot coverage of the proposed
building footprint on the site (15% limit). Additional questions regarding budget and eventual operating cost implications will also be studied.
Sustainability Subcommittee Recommendations Accepted
Recommendations from the CMSBC’s Sustainability Subcommittee were accepted by the full Committee at the meeting held on March 4th. The recommendations addressed the sustainability framework and
high-level goals for the project including:
Deliver a healthy indoor environment,
Inspire a passion for learning,
Achieve high performance energy efficiency (EUI of 25 or better),
Reduce embodied carbon during construction,
Be all-electric; and,
Be solar, storage and net-zero ready; discussions are already underway with CMLP toward actualizing net zero as a town project.
The recommendation also included a series of metrics to support the achievement of the goals.
Communications Subcommittee Members of the Communications Subcommittee have been working with the CMSBC Chairs and project
team to garner community input to inform CMSBC decisions. In the weeks leading up to the meeting on March 4th,, the Communications Subcommittee held a community forum and more than 10 “listening
sessions” with various community organizations and stakeholder groups, including the Select Board, Finance Committee, School Committee, League of Women Voters, SEPAC, Concord Rotary, youth sports and Recreation representatives, Concord Association of Music Parents representatives, and more.
Additional public forums and listening sessions are being planned along with upgrades to the project website and surveys designed to gather as much feedback as possible while updating Concord residents on progress of the CMSBC efforts to complete its task created by the April 2019 Town Meeting vote.
Upcoming Meetings:
Design Subcommittee: March 16, 7:30am via remote participation
Concord Middle School Building Committee: March 18, 7:30 am via remote participation
Concord Middle School Building Committee: April 15, 7:30 am via remote participation
Concord Middle School Building Committee: April 29, 7:30 am via remote participation
All meetings are available via Zoom to the public and interested individuals are encouraged to participate remotely.
Concord Middle School Building Committee Contact Information
Interested individuals can find all relevant materials regarding the Concord Middle School Building
Committee including meeting dates, agendas and minutes as well as reports that led to the Town Meeting
Warrant Article at www.concordps.org/cms-building-project. For questions and comments, individuals
can email the Committee at msbc@concordps.org or utilize the form on the aforementioned web page,
https://www.concordps.org/cms-building-project/email-the-cms-building-committee/.
