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SPACE for STUDENT EXPERIENCES
SPACE for STUDENT EXPERIENCES
Learning doesn’t happen only in individual classrooms. GW offers – and will continue to offer – a complete student experience by creatively using outdoor and indoor areas.
The Cafetorium, used for lunch service during the school day and basketball games afterward, is not a candidate for renovation and will be rebuilt.
The Gymnasium is about three-quarters of the size of the Cafetorium. The architectural firm has analyzed how the gym can remain in use until other renovations near the finish line. It was built separately from the rest of the building with its own heating and electrical systems. That’s one reason the Gym can be used to preserve the student experience beyond classroom-based instruction – including the socialization that happens during lunchtime.
Lunch: The Cafetorium will be demolished, and the gym will be the priority location for lunch. While the gym is not as large as the current Cafetorium, the GW student body will be smaller with fifth grade at elementary schools. The scenario under discussion is for student meals to be made off-site and delivered in insulated containers.
Physical Education courses: These currently take place on the fields, the blacktop or the gym. The proposed modular classroom campus will nearly fill the field area, leaving the blacktop and gym still available for PE classes. Without fifth graders on site, the need for PE space is reduced by 25%. Students will access the gym by walking across Magnolia Avenue (which will remain closed to traffic during the school day).
Sports: Practices for soccer and track teams could be held at Smith Elementary School, where there is ample field space. Another option could be to use fields at nearby Beechwood Park, owned by the Borough of Hillsdale.
Music and Art: Music instruction now uses the stage in the Cafetorium, and art is taught in a dedicated classroom. During the transition period, those sessions could be held in a classroom that is part of the modular campus. Current site drawings allot for that kind of usage in the modular units.
Larger gatherings for music could be scheduled in the gym or another site in Hillsdale. If voter approval leads to more definite planning, administrators will consider the factors of size, proximity and acoustics for music programs.
"Specials" and After-school Activities: Flexibility will be important for the continued offering of school-day “specials” such as World Languages, music, and exploratory courses such as art, media. Planning will also make room for large-group activities like assemblies and guest presenters. After-school activities including Chess Club, Destination Imagination and the Hawks Talks Newspaper already borrow classrooms. During the transition from an old to modernized middle school, these will continue happening in shared spaces.
Drop-off/Pick-up: Transportation patterns are not expected to change significantly at GW during the construction period. Magnolia Avenue will remain closed during the school day (although staff could park there, as some do now). There will be 25% fewer students walking into the modular campus from Magnolia or Liberty Avenue, whereas now they follow a walkway into the school’s front entrance facing Magnolia. Drop-off will no longer take place along Trinity Place, but this should not be problematic because there will be fewer students and alternate drop-off points. At the elementary schools, the current traffic flow can accommodate the drop-off and pick-up of additional students (some of whom have siblings already making that trip).
After the modernization of GW and the removal of modulars, the athletic field space will be rehabilitated and improved. This will present the opportunity to better organize and reposition field layouts and level the area’s grade variations.
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