Bidding to start on new McGregor school

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Construction on the new McGregor Elementary School will come up for bid this month, a result of the passage last April of a $30-million bond issue|ret||ret||tab|

The existing McGregor school, which Principal Kathy Gross described as "a maze," accommodates 230 students. Various parts of the school were built in 1905, 1953, 1959, 1987, and a mobile unit was added in the 1990s, she said. |ret||ret||tab|

According to Gross, with only 11 classrooms, the school is crowded. Special-education teachers share one classroom. Two reading specialists share half of the mobile unit and a kindergarten teacher occupies the other half. A basement in the 1905 structure serves as a teacher workroom and reading-specialist room. The multipurpose room is where breakfast and lunch are served and physical education and music classes are held. The art teacher has no room, but travels from class to class.|ret||ret||tab|

Plans for the new McGregor, as drawn by Butler Rosenbury & Partners, provide major improvements in space allocations, Gross said. For example, the school will have "three classrooms for every grade level, a recreational area for PE, a music room and an art room," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Glenn Pace, director of facilities and maintenance for the Springfield Public Schools, said, "Basically what will happen is that we will demolish most of the existing school, leaving the library or media center and cafeteria/multipurpose room. The new building will be built around those two and interconnect to them. It will be a prototype of a new kind of building for us, in that it will have a couple of meeting rooms available for public use."|ret||ret||tab|

Pace said, "Each new school incorporates the latest in design concepts, that's why it is the newest model school. McGregor will incorporate everything we learned from building McBride Elementary."|ret||ret||tab|

Gross said, "We've planned for a new school for several years and it's something a long time in coming. It is a dream of a lot of people that the students in this part of Springfield would have the model facility that they deserve. In a lot of other areas of their life many don't have much."|ret||ret||tab|

Gross said the architects have tried hard to keep the students in mind in drawing plans. For instance, windows are set a little lower than normal so children can see out. "They want it to be kid friendly," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Logistics of what to do with students while their new school is being built involves deciding between four options, according to Marc Maness, director of communications and academic development with the Springfield Schools. The options he listed included moving the students to a local church for a year, to Williams Elementary, to Doling Elementary, or the Tefft Curriculum Center. |ret||ret||tab|

Other issues include obtaining properties to allow for the expansion of McGregor. "We (the Springfield Schools) had to purchase nine properties," Pace said. "We didn't have to use eminent domain. We avoid that and I can't recall using it in the last 20 years."|ret||ret||tab|

Springfield-Greene County Park Board also bought 11 sites north of the school so that a park-school concept could be developed, according to Dan Kinney, director of the park board. "Schools are the focal point of many neighborhoods," he said.|ret||ret||tab|

The park board plans a picnic and playground area adjoining the school property, which will enlarge the school's playground area. Gross described the present playground as a "postage stamp."|ret||ret||tab|

According to Kinney, "The park-school concept is a total effort between the school board, Springfield-Greene County Park Board, the council, planning zone commission and Vision 20/20." He also noted that the community helped fund it by passing the quarter-cent sales tax.|ret||ret||tab|

"We're hoping the new McGregor will be a model for center city youth and for community involvement. We're doing the preliminary plans with the architect and those plans include parts of the building which will be open for community use," Kinney said.|ret||ret||tab|

Gross noted that the front of the new school facing Madison will look "almost like a little village. The architects kind of have it in mind for the building to look like a community, and the students will be part of the community."|ret||ret||tab|

Gross also said McGregor will hold a reunion April 12 with a pancake supper, building tours, and PTA fund raisers. Anyone with any connection to the school is invited. "We're hoping a lot of people in Springfield will participate and share memories, because not too long after that we'll have to move out," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

The new school should be open for students in August 2002. [[In-content Ad]]