USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1944 > Part 14
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It probably will be a long time before Areas I and II are sufficiently populated to require elementary buildings of their own. But when the Pearl Street School and the ultimate school for Area III cannot longer accommodate the children from these areas, a new building should be located near the center of that area having the larger number of children or the more rapid rate of growth, and the children of the re- mote area transported to this school. In the far distant future a school may be needed for that area.
Map B shows the recommended approximate locations of the ulti- mate elementary school buildings for Reading, without consideration for the availability of sites at the exact locations shown.
The geographical center of the district lies in the small block just west of Main Street, between Hillside and Ridge Roads. The center of population now is south of this point, but is steadily moving northward. Directly west of this point a short distance lies the Birch Meadow play- ground, a tract of some 32 acres, part of which is already developed. This land belongs to the town, but could be set aside for school purposes. There is high ground adjacent to the east, between Birch Meadow and
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Main Street, which would provide an excellent setting for a building. With a high school located here, the entire plot could be developed gradually, so that within a reasonable period of time, complete facilities for all phases of the educational program and school and community ac- tivities could be made available. It is strongly recommended that the senior high school be located at this point.
Problem 2 .- Outlining a complete school plant for the educational job to be done.
Question 2.3-What grades should each building be planned to 1
house ?
Question 2.4-What capacity should each building have?
From the discussion of previous sections of the report these ques- tions may be answered in a few sentences. Each elementary building should be planned to house a kindergarten and grades one through six. The building recommended for immediate construction in Area VI should be planned for a capacity of 450 to 500. The anticipated buildings in Areas III and V will require the same capacity, although when the one in Area V is needed, it may be possible to build a smaller first unit of 300 capacity, but design it for economical expansion to its ultimate capacity. This same procedure probably will be possible for the remotely anticipated buildings in Areas I and II. The capacity of the Pearl Street building now is approximately 450.
The capacity of the Junior High School is rated at about 600. This should not be increased. When additional space for the anticipated in- crease in enrolment is needed, it is recommended that such space be provided by the extension of the Senior High School, provided, of course, that that school is located at Birch Meadow or on a similarly adequate site. This would create a six-year secondary unit there, and would ac- commodate all of the junior high school pupils from the northern part of the district.
The recommended senior high school should be planned for approxi- mately 800 pupils in grades 10-12. The building must be planned for easy extension, whether to accommodate an overflow of junior high school pupils from the Walter S. Parker School, an increase in grades 10-12, or a change in organization that would add grades 13 and 14 to the secondary schools. It should be planned also for community use, and all the major assembly units, such as the auditorium, gymnasium, library, cafeteria, and swimming pool, if one is provided, should be planned now for maximum capacity, as it is difficult to increase the capacity of these units, once they are set.
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Problem 3 .- Determining the best use of the existing facilities. Question 3.1 -- What buildings should be abandoned immediately ?
From a reading of the evaluation of the school plant it is evident that the Chestnut Hill, Prospect, and Lowell buildings should be aban- doned immediately. The new school recommended for immediate con- struction in Area VI would accommodate all the children now housed in the Chestnut Hill and Prospect buildings, while the children from the Lowell School would be assigned to the Highland School until that building is replaced.
It is equally evident that a new high school building is recommended to replace the present senior high school building. Sufficient reasons, that need not be repeated here, already have been given for this recom- m'endation. It follows then that, on the completion of a new high school building, the present building should be abandoned for school purposes.
Problem 3 .- Determining the best use of the existing facilities.
Question 3.2-What buildings should be conditioned for limited use ?
The Highland elementary building is the only one that falls in this category. The condition of this building has been discussed thoroughly, pointing out both its assets and liabilities. With reasonable remodelling for temporary continuance, it can be made to serve approximately 300 children. Conditions will be much less than ideal in many details, but the need for immediate replacement is not mandatory. These facts, however, must be kept in mind :
First, the building is highly combustible, demanding that every effort be made to make the building reasonably fire-safe, and
Second, the age of the building and ordinary deterioration due to type of construction will require its replacement within a reasonably short period of time-possibly within ten years.
Problem 3 .- Determining the best use of the existing facilities.
Question 3.3-What buildings should be retained as part of the per- manent school plant ?
Reading has two modern and substantial buildings and wisdom dictates that the future development of the entire plant should be orientated from them. These are the Pearl Street School and the Walter S. Parker Junior High School. With the changes suggested at such time in the future as seems appropriate these two buildings should re- main as part of any permanent school building plan to be considered.
Question 3.4-What major alterations or expansions should be made to existing buildings and sites ?
The most urgent demand for immediate improvement is, of course, in the Highland School. A complete and detailed study of this building should be made by an architect and an engineer, in order to discover every step that can be taken to insure the safety of the children. A
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fundamental rule of safety to guide these men is that every room in the building that may be occupied by children, whether classrooms or service rooms, should open directly onto an unobstructed corridor that leads directly to at least two exits remote from each other. These exits should be accessible from the basement and floors above the ground floor by two or more firesafe stairways, leading directly to the remote exits. An excellent rule on basement space for pupil occupancy is, Never Have Any. A good sprinkler system would do much to reduce the fire hazards in the Highland School.
No immediate major alterations or repairs are needed either at the Junior High School building or at the Pearl Street building. Steps are already being taken to improve the site at the Junior High School. The Pearl Street School should have more playground with more space developed and equipped for recreation and organized healthful play ac- tivities. There is room for considerable improvement in the auditorium of the Junior High School, and the room used for art is poorly designed and very unsatisfactory. For a well-organized program of physical edu- cation the gymnasium should be divisible into two courts by a power- driven folding partition. The Pearl Street building is in need of a gymnasium, constructed above ground, and available for school and community uses. All of these improvements may be postponed, however, for the more immediate and urgent need for a new elementary school south of the B and M tracks, and a new high school on a new site.
Problem 4 .- Setting up a schedule for the orderly development of the total school plant.
Question 4.1-What new buildings are needed immediately ?
The answers to the first four questions under Problem 4 are more or less a summary of the discussions of Problems 1, 2, and 3, and can therefore be very brief. The new buildings needed immediately are an elementary building to replace the Chestnut Hill and Prospect buildings, and a new senior high school in connection with the Birch Meadow site.
Question 4.2-What major improvements in existing facilities should be made immediately ?
None, but the improvements suggested in the discussion of Question 3.4 should be anticipated. It is possible that, if a new high school for 800 pupils is erected in the immediate postwar period, and if the anticipated increases in enrolment are realized, an addition to this building may be required to house the junior high school pupils that cannot be accom- modated in the Walter S. Parker building.
Question 4.3-In what probable order will other new buildings be needed ?
First, the replacement of the Highland School; then as a very re- mote possibility, a school for Area I, followed by a school for Area II.
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Question 4.4-When should new sites be chosen ?
Land' for the first elementary building and the high school building should be secured immediately. The area now served by the Highland School may grow very rapidly after the war. A site there should be secured, either by purchase or option, at the earliest possible moment. There is no particular need for securing sites now in Areas I and II, but land adjacent to the Pearl Street School should be secured either by purchase or option, when available.
Question 4.5-When should non-urgent improvements in existing facilities be made ?
For major improvements this has already been answered in question 4.2. For minor repairs and improvements that fall in the category of maintenance, it is very advisable that an annual budget for such work be set up to finance a continuous program of maintenance and repair. Through this method the over-all cost of upkeep on the total school plant can be kept at a minimum, and many thousands of dollars saved by pre- venting major deterioration that may require major replacement.
Question 4.6-What are the financial problems involved in the orderly development of the total school plant?
In school districts in which the financing of education is controlled entirely by the school board or school committee, and is not tied in with or restricted by the financial problems of other units of government, it is possible to work out an answer to such a question, without consulting with the officers of those other governmental units. But this is not the situation in Reading, and therefore it would be inadvisable to try to suggest in this report any method of school plant financing. This problem must be solved by co-operative effort on the part of the school commit- tee and other agents of the town government.
The two new buildings recommended, plus the probable cost of im- provements to the Highland School, should cost, at 1940 price levels, ap- proximately $970,000. This figure is based on estimated costs of $300,000 for the elementary school and $660,000 for the high school with $10,000 for improvements on the Highland building. If bonds were issued for this amount, to be amortized in 30 years at 3% interest, and if the annual payments of principal and interest were equalized, these annual pay- ments would amount to approximately $47,370. If there should be any- kind of Federal or State aid for construction after the war, this amount could be reduced proportionately with the percentage of the grant al- lowed. Under the last PWA construction, grants equaling 45% of the cost of all construction, land, land development, and fees, were given by the Federal government.
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Summary of Conditions and Recommendations.
Conditions.
1. The Elementary Schools.
1.1 The elementary schools organization of Reading includes grades one to six, but only two of the five elementary buildings house pupils of those grades. These are the Pearl Street and Highland buildings. The Chestnut Hill, Prospect Street, and Lowell Street buildings house only grades one to four, and this makeshift grouping of children is due to the lack of proper buildings to permit a uniform organization throughout the district.
1.2 There are no kindergartens in Reading. It is not entirely clear whether this is due to lack of facilities, or to an established edu- cational policy that precludes kindergartens.
1.3 The Chestnut Hill, Prospect Street, and Lowell Street buildings are definite fire and safety hazards, are too small to permit the lived their usefulness. In spite of the buildings, excellent teach- ing was found in each.
1.4 The Highland building, built in 1896, of brick and frame con- struction, with a second-story assembly room and basement toilets, is in some respects more of a fire hazard than the all- frame buildings. It is a matter of record that buildings of this type burn more violently than frame buildings, because the fire is confined within the brick walls, which act as a flue.
By careful study and planning, this building can be made reason- ably fire-safe, principally by opening up all class rooms to direct exits leading from standard fire-resistive stairs, and by installing a sprinkler system to prevent incipient fires.
The Highland building has the advantage of enough classrooms to permit the operation of a good elementary school of approxi- organization of good elementary schools, and neither the build- ings nor the sites lend themselves to worthwhile enlargement. They range in age from 54 to 74 years, and have completely out- mately 300 to 350 children. The building is well located for the area it now serves, but the site is entirely too small for a school of this size, and cannot be extended reasonably.
1.5 The Pearl Street building is modern, fire-resistive, well located on a good site that can be extended, and is capable of accommo-
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dating approximately 400 to 450 children without classes of ex- cessive size.
The building lacks some facilities that an ideal elementary pro- gram demands, but none that cannot be obtained within the build- ing, except a gymnasium. The excessive waste space in the base- inent of this building probably cost half the amount necessary to provide a comfortable, attractive gymnasium above ground.
2 The High Schools.
2.1 The secondary schools of Reading are organized to include grades seven to twelve, with post-graduate work available for students who wish it. The work of the secondary school is separated into junior high and senior high school levels. The former includes grades seven through nine, and the latter, grades ten through twelve.
2.2 The junior high school is housed in the Walter S. Parker build- ing, located south of, but nearby, the tracks of the Boston and Maine Railroad. The building is modern, fire-resistive, and at- tractive, and can accommodate 600 children, or slightly more, in the junior high school grades. Facilities are adequate to provide a well-rounded educational program, both within and outside the building, as the grounds are ample for this enrolment, and gen- erally well developed. Improvements could be made in the auditorium, gymnasium, and art room.
2.3 The senior high school building, erected in 1906, is, in terms of modern design, construction, and educational utilization, com- pletely outmoded; it has outlived its usefulness, and should be abandoned. Except for the regular academic classrooms, it con- tains none of the facilities and features that are necessary to permit the operation of a well-rounded program of secondary education.
The science rooms are very poorly adapted to the work to be done in science. The art room is a miserable substitute for the type of room required, while there is no auditorium, adequate gymnasium, suitable cafeteria, social science laboratory, nor rooms for teaching homemaking or shop courses. In the field of secondary education a high school today without those facilities compares favorably with a model T car in the field of present-day automotive engineering; it deserves high praise for its pioneering service, but progress has left it standing mostly as a relic, not as an instrument of modern service.
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The high school site is in the same category as the building. Today the health and recreation program in secondary educa- tion demands outdoor facilities located at the building, adequate to provide organized healthful and purposeful activities for all of the children, and not just for the athletic teams. These activi- ties must be widely varied, and in a school the size of Reading High, it is impossible to provide for them on less than 15 to 20 acres of land. Unfortunately it is impossible to secure such an area around the present high school building.
3. Population and Enrolment.
3.1 The population of Reading has increased steadily from 1920 to the present date. The rate of increase declined during 1931-40, probably due to the depression, but there is evidence that it has started to accelerate again. It is predicted that the population will reach 14,000 by 1950, and probably 16,000 to 18,000 by 1955.
3.2 The present enrolment in Reading is, in round numbers, 1150 in the elementary schools, grades 1-6, and 500 in each high school, grades 7-9 and 10-12. The total figure for all grades is 2150.
The elementary enrolnient reached its peak figure of about 1220 in 1926, and has declined steadily to a low of 1060 in 1940, since when it has risen to the present figure. Under normal conditions it should keep pace with population, as the anticipated construc- tion of post-war new homes for younger couples should offset the nation-wide downward trend in birthrate. Junior high school enrolment reached its peak of 623 in 1937-38, and has dropped steadily since then to the present low of 516. It is anticipated that this trend will again turn upward after the war, probably lagging behind the elementary trend by several years.
The senior high school enrolment, as in all other secondary schools, has dropped very rapidly since 1940. It had reached its peak at 681 in that year, and will undoubtedly return to its nor- mal upward trend, paralleling elementary and junior high en- rolments, in the post-war period.
3.3 Predictions for 1950 and 1955, based upon esimated population of 14,000 and 16,000 for those years, are
Grades 1-6, 1400 in 1950, 1600 in 1955 K-6, 1635 in 1950, 1865 in 1955 7-9, 900 in 1950, 1000 in 1955
10-12, 725 in 1950, 820 in 1955
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3.4 The area located south of the Boston and Maine tracks, to- gether with the area in the triangle bounded by these tracks, Main Street, and Forest Street, contain about 65% of the present population and elementary school enrolment. As indicated by new home construction since 1938, the rate of growth in the three areas; (1) north of Forest and Wakefield Streets, (2) be- tween these streets and the Boston and Maine tracks, and (3) south of the tracks, has been almost identical. By the same measure the growth west of Main Street has been almost twice that east of Main Street. Apparently plans for the future must anticipate school building needs in all sections of the district.
Recommendations.
1. The Elementary Schools.
1.1 Eventually there should be one elementary school in Reading for each 400 to 600 children in grades K-6 inclusive, (Kinder- garten and first six grades). These should be so located as to have as little over-lapping as possible in their service areas.
1.2 A new elementary school should be constructed immediately, somewhere near the center of the area bounded by Prescott Street, the Boston and Maine tracks, Main Street, and the Woburn and Stoneham town lines. This should accommodate about 500 children in the kindergarten and grades one through six, and should house immediately all the children of those grades residing south of the B and M tracks. At 1940 construction costs this building should cost about $300,000, including equipment, land, and all fees. It should be placed on a good site of not less than five acres. The building should be designed for both school and community purposes, and all details should be carefully studied, in order that a complete modern elementary program may be operated with economy and efficiency. This school should house all children south of the tracks until the school mentioned in the following item, 1.3, is needed. This report recommends strongly the inclusion of kindergartens in all elementary schools.
1.3 A new elementary school similar to the one described in item 1.2 should be anticipated for the area west of Prescott Street and south of the B and M tracks. This will be a problem of the fu- ture, but before this area is fully developed, a site of at least 5 acres should be secured by purchase or option somewhere near the center of the area. This school should be designed for con- struction in several units, thereby keeping pace with increasing enrolment needs, but avoiding the danger of over-building.
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1.4 A thorough study of the Highland School should be made by a competent architect, in order to make all changes necessary to render this building as reasonably safe as possible. All class- rooms and other spaces, such as basement toilets and playrooms, should be so arranged that children using them will have two safe means of egress, either by standard fire-resistive stairs, or acceptable fire escapes. The children should be drilled in using alternate means of exit. This building should be retained tempo- rarily to house all the children of grades K-6 living north of the B and M tracks, but not attending the Pearl Street School.
1.5 A new elementary school similar to the one described in item 1.2 should be anticipated for the area lying north of the B and M tracks and west of Main Street. This will replace the Highland School, and should be located somewhere near the triangular area between the tracks, Main Street, and Forest Street. In the near future a site of 5 acres should be secured either by pur- chase or option, as this new school may be required within the next ten years.
1.6 The Pearl Street School should be used as it now is, except that the kindergarten room should be used for that purpose. When funds are available, a suitable gymnasium should be added to this building, and adequate playgrounds should be developed.
1.7 New elementary schools should be anticipated for the remote future above Forest and Wakefield Streets, on each side of Main Street.
2. The High Schools.
2.1 The junior high school building should be retained for its pres- ent use, keeping the enrolment therein to approximately 600. There is strong argument in favor of having the junior and senior high school grades in one building, so that the work of those grades can be more closely intergrated than is usually the custom in separate buildings. If the junior high school were lo- cated more centrally in the entire area to be served eventually, and if the present site could be made adequate to serve the entire high school without exhorbitant cost, it would be recommended that the high schools be combined under one roof.
But the matter of closer integration between junior and senior high school is more a problem of administration and supervision than of roof covering. The advantages of initiating a new high school unit on a new site of 20 acres or more, with room for future expansion of building and educational activities, and pos-
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sible extension of the organization to include grades thirteen and fourteen, far outweigh other apparent advantages of com- bination. This statement does not overlook the admitted lower cost of operation of both program and plant in one build- ing for a school for the size of Reading. But lower cost is NOT the primary aim of education; it should be gained when possible, but only without sacrificing excessively the efficiency of the edu- cational work.
2.2 It is strongly recommended that a new senior high school to accommodate approximately 800 pupils be constructed on a new site, located as near as possible to the center of the town, and on a site of not less than twenty acres. In addition to housing the senior high school, this building should be so designed that, when needed, economical extensions could be made to house all junior high school pupils in excess of the normal load to be accom- modated at the Walter S. Parker Junior High School. Norm- ally these pupils could reside north of the B and M tracks, but such an arrangement could permit better educational service for those pupils who, for various reasons, reach a point in their edu- cational history where they are doing part 9th grade work and part 10th grade work. Such a plan of extension would permit the expansion of the program to include grades thirteen and fourteen, if ever that becomes desirable.
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