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Community meeting to discuss overhaul of Meany campus, reopening Capitol Hill middle school

With the regional housing market, the just completed (?) global economic downturn and coming massive transportation infrastructure improvements conspiring to create a boom of school-age children in central Seattle, a $14.2 million plan to overhaul and reopen 21st Ave E’s Meany Middle School moves forward this week with increased opportunity for community involvement:

While Middle School seems a long way off to many of us, it is high time to start gathering input and collaborating on the development of Meany Middle School. Meany, our neighborhood public middle school, is scheduled to reopen in 2017. The Meany School Design Advisory Committee (SDAT) has had four meetings and the project is in the pre-design phase. As parents, we’d like to start organizing members of the feeder schools to ensure that we gather community input regarding the programs, activities and any other opportunities you’d like to see offered to our neighborhood’s 6-8th graders. 
To join the first of these discussions, please come to a meeting in the Stevens Elementary School Library on Thursday, January 23rd at 7pm.

Don’t miss this opportunity to make your voice heard!

Stevens Elementary
1242 18th Ave E
Seattle, WA 98112
Enter on 18th Avenue E and take the stairs (located either to the right or the left) or elevator (to the left of the office) to the second level. The library is on the south side of the building.

A 17-member School Design Advisory Team including students, parents and neighbors has already been meeting for months on the planned project that will overhaul the campus for seismic safety and remake the school to educate more than 800 students. A community design charrette follows later in January. Miller Hayashi Architects is leading the design process.

The district estimates it would have cost approximately $70 million more to build a new school from the ground up.

The Miller Park Neighbors community group has called on the district to cap the student population planned for the campus at 600 and to establish a parking zone program in the area around the school in addition to a handful of street and pedestrian safety improvements in the area.

Here is how Seattle Public Schools describes the Meany plan:

The building will be completely renovated and reopened as a comprehensive middle school. With a capacity of 850, this project will address current and projected middle school enrollment growth in central Seattle and reduce overcrowding at Washington Middle School.

Modernization includes:

  • Abatement and demolition of unnecessary site structures.

  • Abatement and demolition of interior spaces as necessary to reconfigure for optimum use.

  • Rehabilitation of building envelope including roof replacement, exterior wall updates and painting, and installation of energy efficient windows.

  • Structural work and earthquake retrofitting including replacement of roof diaphragm, tying roof structure to supporting walls, and installing lateral bracing systems.

  • Interior finish work such as replacing floor and ceiling finishes and complete repainting.

  • Addressing accessibility issues such as wheelchair access, restroom sizes, and accessible fixtures.

  • Renovation or replacement of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

  • Technology upgrades such as building-wide wi-fi and data networks.

  • Installation of new fire alarm and sprinkler systems.

  • New furniture, fixtures and equipment.

  • Site work including playfield renovation, installation of new building signage and energy-efficient lighting, and resurfacing and restriping of the parking lot.”

The project will also attempt to meet the Living Building Challenge sustainable building certification program.

Currently, the campus is used by the NOVA alternative high school and the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center. Both programs are slated to move to SPS-owned buildings in the Central District to make way for the construction and reopened middle school.

You can learn more on the Meany Middle School Planning Blog and on the SPS Meany Project Page.

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[…] Meany Middle School when it’s ready for reopening near 19th and Thomas. CHS reported about the $14.2 million construction project […]

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[…] home on the Meany campus will be shut down for construction in time for a planned 2017 reopening of a new middle school for the predicted growing wave of Capitol Hill teens. For now, both NOVA and the World School are still resident on 21st Ave […]