Brunswick Schools shows interior design plan for new high school

BRUNSWICK — Community members got an inside look at the new Brunswick High School on Wednesday during a construction update. Scott Alleman from ThenDesign Architecture said the 302,000-square-foot school, which will be on the site of Towslee Elementary School, will have three points of entry. Bus traffic will enter from the west, staff and student parking will be on the north and parents and visitors will use the south entry. "There are security steps that are happening on each of these entries, but we still want them to be inviting, welcoming and exciting," he said. The new building is more compact than the current Brunswick High School, which is a quarter-mile long. Alleman said a walkability study was completed, and it would take a student about 4.5 minutes to go from corner to corner of the new school. "That's not a walk that most students will be taking," he said. "The design is going to be much more student-friendly and staff-friendly." The two-story part of the building will face Center Road and house the academic wing, Alleman said. It is designed so the wings are stacked vertically by grade, so a freshman taking a sophomore level class, for instance, would just need to walk up the stairs. The four academic wings are anticipated to be as follows: Freshmen on the first floor to the east Sophomores on the second floor to the east Juniors on the second floor to the west Seniors on the first floor to the west "We want to make sure that when students enter classrooms, whatever the subject area that's being taught, that environment is designed to meet the needs of the instruction that they're going to get," Brunswick Schools Superintendent Jason Niedermeyer said. Behind the academic wing will be a one-story section that will house four visual arts classrooms, three music spaces, a performing arts center, two gyms and two cafeterias, Alleman said. Visitors can stop by after-school events at the high school using the north entrance. Derrick Semilia from Hammond Construction said early site work for the new high school is expected to begin in October, and the foundation will be started a year from now. Construction is anticipated to start this fall and end in the summer of 2027. Also on Wednesday, community members took part in a visual preference exercise in which they gave their thoughts on what the school's exterior should look like. Participants put stickers on poster boards to show which exterior design they preferred. Brunswick Schools is planning to release a digital survey soon to receive more community input on the building's exterior, Ryan Caswell from ThenDesign Architecture said. "That information can be funneled to some of the designers," he said. "As we progress through the design development process and into construction, we can maybe highlight some of those or look at that for consideration as that meshes up with budget constraints and square-footage." The construction is part of a bond issue that voters passed in May 2023, so the district can finish its facilities master plan. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.