January 19, 2012
West Mifflin Unveils New Middle School
On Monday and Tuesday, students in grades 6, 7 and 8 in the West Mifflin Area School District will spend their last days in the old middle school -- a structure pieced together from two buildings, one built in 1939 and the other in 1959.
When they report to school Jan. 30, they will be transported to the new 174,000-square-foot, $34.7 million middle school that has been under construction for two years.
Teachers and staff will use the three days the students spend out of the classroom to move into and set up their new classrooms.
"The middle school teachers who have been with the district for years have been waiting for this day for so long. They have been every day dealing with the [water] leaks and the problems with getting electronics to work in the old building," superintendent Daniel Castagna said.
In the new middle school, each teacher will get a new laptop with updated software and every classroom will have either an interactive whiteboard or projector that will project images from laptops. Students will have access to 210 new laptops and 150 iPads.
Middle school students and their parents can attend a "Step-in Day" from 1 to 3 p.m. or 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 27 There will be a community open house from 6 to 8:30 p.m. March 1.
The general contractor on the project is Nello Construction, and the architectural firm is Graves & McLean. The project is among the final work of architect Victor Graves, who died last week.
The two-story building sits beside the high school along Commonwealth Avenue and holds 77 classrooms, including two science labs, two computer labs, a full-size gymnasium, library, band room and cafeteria and auditorium, both of which seat about 550. There is also a large art room with a kiln on the second floor.
Inside the entrance is a large commons area illuminated with natural light, leading into a building also lit, in large portion, by natural light. The commons area will be used for art displays and other student activities and is expected to be filled with student work for the community open house, Mr. Castagna said.
There are 72 security cameras throughout the school that will record activities in hallways, staircases and other areas in an effort to reduce bullying and other inappropriate behavior.
The library is just inside the main entrance, and each first-floor science lab is between two science classrooms.
The full-size gymnasium is decorated in school colors, complete with blue and gold bleachers and a large scoreboard. The bleachers are retractable, giving more floor space so that multiple activities can take place at once, and curtains can be drawn to separate the gym into multiple spaces, said Sandy Wells, director of buildings and grounds. There is also a separate wrestling room behind the gym.
The school offers handicapped accessible lockers in which shelves are placed at lower levels, an elevator for students who can't walk the steps and a life skills classroom for special education students to learn tasks such as cooking, cleaning and washing clothes.
In addition to the middle school building, the project includes a $7 million field house adjacent to the new softball and baseball fields, created to replace those at the site of the new school. There also is a new practice soccer field and a practice football field, and the band field has been redone, Mrs. Wells said, though most of the fields won't be ready for play this season.
The field house holds locker rooms, public restrooms, a concession stand, storage rooms and a press box.
Grades 6, 7 and 8 will attend the school for the remainder of the year, but in 2012-13, plans call for fifth grade to join them, with grades 5 and 6 upstairs and 7 and 8 downstairs. Projected enrollment for the four grades is 885.
Mr. Castagna said fourth-graders could be moved to the new building in the future, though no discussion has been held on the possibility. With grades 5-8 attending, 13 classrooms with be empty, enough for the current nine fourth-grade classes.
The school is larger than necessary because projected enrollments were higher than actual enrollments, Mr. Castagna said. That difference has been a topic at school board meetings during the past year.
At last week's workshop meeting, Mr. Castagna asked the board to allow him to seek an appraisal of New England Elementary in case it needs to be sold to balance the budget. The board will act on that request at its meeting at 7:30 tonight. The old middle school building on Camp Hollow Road is also on the market. Mrs. Wells said the older part of the building once held a fallout shelter in the basement, and food rations are still stored there.
"We're going to have to figure out what to do with them," she said.
by Mary Niederberger, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette