MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO -- Given the military’s financial situation, the consolidated elementary school that is about to be built near the middle/high school is a sound idea in more ways than one, said Col. David Maxwell, commander of Marine Corps Base Quantico.
“This consolidation, as we go into this environment, is, I think, a good investment,” Maxwell said, noting that it will simplify infrastructure management and also save energy with its environmentally friendly design. Moreover, he said, “The flexibility that comes with this design is not only good financially, but it’s good for the teachers and good for the students.”
Maxwell was one of several speakers at a groundbreaking for the new school, which brought base leadership, school officials and contractors together under a tent near Quantico Middle/High School during a downpour the morning of April 12, 2013. The school, which is being built on an accelerated schedule and planned to be completed by September 2014, will replace the three existing elementary schools on the base, housing pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.
Part of the flexibility Maxwell alluded to comes from the fact that the school will revive the idea of arranging classrooms in pods, or “neighborhoods,” and separating them with removable walls, but these partitions will include noise-cancelling technology to eliminate the sort of distractions that caused “open classrooms” to fall out of style during the 1980s, said Zach McKissick, logistics supervisor for the Department of Defense Activity New York/Virginia/Puerto Rico School District, in an separate interview.
Each of the school’s 10 neighborhoods will include four classrooms, or “learning studios,” a central common area, a staff planning room, at least one small-group room and a one-on-one room.
“This building is basically going to set us up for the next 50 years,” McKissick said, noting that the various and changeable spaces in each pod will allow for variety and adjustments in teaching programs, while the building will also be outfitted with the latest information technology infrastructure. Each classroom will include an interactive whiteboard, which is a large, interactive display connected to a computer.
The building will meet the Silver Standard for schools in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, with a rainwater capture system, a hybrid geothermal climate control system, radiant floor heating and a rooftop garden. Solar panels and a wind turbine are also being considered as options.
Most of the school’s approximately 130,000 square feet of space will be on the first floor, although four classroom “neighborhoods” will be on a second story toward the front of the building. About 750 children are expected to attend.
Homeland Contracting Corporation, based in Chesapeake, Va., was awarded a contract of about $42.3 million to build the school and then demolish Russell Elementary School, with the demolition to be complete by April 2015.
The Ashurst Elementary building will eventually be turned over to the base, and Burrows Elementary will remain the headquarters of the school district’s administration and home of the stateside hub of DoDEA’s virtual high school.
After Russell Elementary is demolished, construction of a new middle/high school is to begin.
At Friday’s groundbreaking, district Superintendent Michael Gould noted that the base’s first school, built around 1919, was a two-story, one-room structure that sat near the current location of the fire station. The teachers were wives of the active duty service members, and funding came from donations, bazaars, bake sales and the post exchange, he said.
Government funding for the schools didn’t arrive until 1953, when Russell Elementary was built, although another school had been built in the meantime and was only demolished in 1989.
“To say, ‘We’ve come a long way, baby,’ may be cliché, but my goodness, we have come a long way,” Gould said. The one thing that hasn’t changed, he added, is the support of the community.
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com