Members of the Springfield Board of Education saw what the inside of a new Pipkin Middle School could look like, but they stayed silent about concerns and questions dealing with the land on which the school would be built.
In its first meeting after acquisition of property at 3207 E. Pythian St. was rejected by the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission, Springfield school board members received an update about design plans for a new Pipkin Middle School and a new Reed Academy. Officials with Paragon Architecture, Sapp Design Architects and Navigate Building Solutions discussed how the schools would look inside, and where the buildings would sit on their respective properties.
Board President Danielle Kincaid said after a meeting Aug. 21 that the school district has been aware of those concerns for a while, and is working on addressing them.
“Something that has been clear to me is that the concerns that have been raised are not new concerns,” Kincaid said. “Those individuals at the district who had been tasked with identifying an appropriate site for Pipkin were aware of those concerns, and we are addressing those concerns.”
No timetable has yet been set for that, however. As of Aug. 21, the board had not announced the finalization of a sale for 20.99 acres of land that would house the new school.
Closed sessions
Earlier Tuesday, the board entered into a closed session — real estate matters, as well as legal and personnel matters, were cited as the reasons for the session. Later Tuesday evening, another closed session was announced for 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, for the same three reasons.
Missouri’s Sunshine Law allows a governmental body to close a meeting to the public for real estate negotiations, “where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration therefor,” according to Chapter 610.021.2 of Missouri Revised Statutes. March 30, Springfield Public Schools announced it had entered into a contract with 4GS Investments to buy the 20.99-acre site.
Kincaid and Chief Communications Officer Stephen Hall declined to say whether the Pythian site was on the agenda for Tuesday’s or Wednesday’s closed sessions.
Voicing concerns
During the meeting Aug. 21, four of the nine speakers in the public comments period expressed mostly concerns about the Pythian Street property. Eight others sent emails to the school board expressing uncertainty about that location.
Their comments mirrored questions raised during the July Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, where the commission voted 6-1 against the acquisition. Commissioners said that a school did not belong in an area zoned for heavy industrial use, and worried that a nearby railroad crossing would block access to the school in the event of an emergency.
Pythian Street is currently the only road that accesses the property, and the road ends near the property’s southeastern corner. BNSF railroad tracks run north and south along the property’s western edge. U.S. Highway 65 runs along the property’s eastern edge, and does not allow access to Pythian. The northern edge of the property is wooded.
School district officials said in July that the Pythian site was determined to be the best option after a long search for available space within the district, performed with the assistance of an ad hoc committee.
The Pythian property is large enough to hold a campus similar to the new Jarrett Middle School, located at 906 W. Portland St. It has more than six times the space as the current Pipkin Middle School, which sits on 3.07 acres at 1215 N. Boonville Ave.
Design updates
Lindsay Reichert, a project manager for Paragon Architecture, told board members that a current design for Pipkin Middle School would offer about 114,750 square feet for about 550 middle school students.
The design included a change to expand the amount of space for special education classrooms to about 4,200 square feet. Reichert said that change was made after interviews with Pipkin staff members indicated the school has one of the largest populations of those students, she said.
It would feature about 52,700 square feet of space for classrooms, career and tech programs, flex programs and special education. Another 27,500 square feet inside the school would be used for physical education, while 13,600 square feet would be used for art, media, choir, orchestra and band rooms.
About 10,800 square feet would be used for a cafetorium — a combination cafeteria, gym and auditorium — and kitchen, while the remaining 10,500 square feet would be used for administration and maintenance.
A traffic study concerning the Pythian Street property, conducted by engineering firm Olsson, is expected to be delivered to Springfield Public Schools in the future.
(Photo by Jym Wilson)
