A Visioning Workshop for Avon Lake City Schools in September 2025 informed designers about the community's preferences for the new 5-8 school funded by the passage of a bond issue in May 2025. ThenDesign Architecture (TDA) staff facilitated activities that engaged students, faculty, and guests to garner ideas to assist in the school's planning and development.

Avon Lake City Schools hosted a Visioning Workshop at Avon Lake High School in September 2025 to engage the community and garner their ideas and preferences for the district's new 5-8 school. Members from ThenDesign Architecture (TDA) facilitated the event that had students, staff, members of the local government, and residents in attendance.

After voters passed the school district's bond issue in May 2025, the team immediately began planning the design for the new 5-8 school to better accommodate the student population and provide a modern educational environment through the new facility. The capital improvement initiative is called "Building ALegacy."

Leading up to Visioning, the district gathered the entire staff from Troy Intermediate and Learwood Middle School to participate in structured activities to gather key information from the staff's perspective to be incorporated into initial layouts. The Visioning Workshop was held a week later and was open to more of the community.

During this stage of the design phase, these sessions were not only about how students and faculty would use the 5-8 school, but also about how to utilize the building as a shared-use space for other community groups.

Designing for Education and Community

"Our mission statement is to prepare students for an evolving world," said Superintendent Joelle Magyar, "and the new building is a reflection of that."

Joelle welcomed the participants, and ThenDesign Architecture Project Manager Ryan Schmit, RA, NCARB, LEED AP, provided an overview of the day's activities. "This stage in the design process is to start thinking about how you will experience the building," he said. "Please make sure your voice is heard. That will ensure this project is as successful as possible."

Ryan let everyone know that there are no bad ideas, there are only ideas. "Our job is to pull in your ideas from today, blend those with ours, and the process will keep snowballing into the final design," he said. "We need to make sure that we're planning so that these spaces can be utilized by the next generations of teachers, students, and staff, and incorporate the best modern educational practices. But remember to also have fun."

After introductions by TDA and Greenspace Construction Services staff, district representatives made comments and summarized what was learned from district staff the previous week. Participants then answered surveys on their phones, wrote down their wish list items, likes and dislikes, engaged with a student Q & A panel, and concluded the day by presenting their customized foamcore models of the school's layout.

Gaining Perspective

Joelle stressed the importance of hearing ideas from the student perspective, which is why TDA Interior Designer Jen Murray, NCIDQ, moderated a student panel. "Educational Visioning helps us get an idea of the direction that the design can possibly go. We hear people want extra windows and more natural light in the spaces," she said.

The student panel answered questions and engaged in a back-and-forth discussion with the audience, covering a variety of topics about their experiences and preferences.

Jen explained that what is inside a building is equally important as the layout, "We touched on the idea of furniture that they would like to see in the classrooms and what makes them comfortable. Every student learns differently, and how furniture functions can vary. Some students are more fidgety than others, so whether a chair is stationary or mobile makes a difference."

She concluded, "Talking about the different furniture in classrooms is helpful to us because we can offer informed recommendations for the different styles that can be provided in the final design."

Many Voices, One Theme

The theme of the day was about bettering education for students and how the new building could help facilitate that. Beyond aesthetic considerations, some concepts discussed included traffic flow, transition times, community amenities, and classroom placement.

Ryan commented, "There were a lot of consistent themes today, which I think are really important to appreciate because we're finding the identity of what the building will be. The next steps will be taking all this information back to our office, distilling it, and putting it all together in a comprehensive way so we can do our best at navigating and incorporating these ideas."

Joelle explained the impact of the design on future generations, "The building we are planning will outlive all of us. It isn't easy to know what education will look like 50 years from now, but we need to do our best to make sure that students today and tomorrow are academically prepared."

From Past to Present

Since the Visioning Workshop last September, significant milestones have been passed as the design process continues to mature. After gathering the ideas and preferences from teachers, students, and community members, elements from those discussions have inspired many facets of the school's design.

The anticipated opening date for the new Avon Lake 5-8 School is scheduled for the 2028-2029 school year. The district remains committed to keeping the community informed as this vital project progresses.