District pursues 2nd phase of Hampton High School renovations

The second of three planned phases of Hampton High School renovations could begin next spring.

Representatives of construction management firm PJ Dick, which served as project manager for the first phase, presented a tentative timeline at the school board’s May 6 work session. They estimated the total Phase II cost at between $30 million and $33.2 million.

The board plans to vote May 13 on contracting with PJ Dick and project architect DRAW Collective to proceed with design work on the second phase, which involves reconfiguring multiple areas of the 54-year-old high school building.

Phase I, completed in early 2023, included new roofing, a redesigned entrance, improved traffic flow and expanded parking, and a new media center for students and staff members.

Discussions about renovating the building date back to February 2018, when Principal Marguerite Imbarlina presented an “academic redesign vision” for the school, according to Superintendent Michael Loughead.

“That was the first time we talked about some of the limitations of the high school from an instructional standpoint,” he said. “This wasn’t initially a sequenced or phased project. This was the design of the high school, one vision, a renovation and small additions that fit with the academic vision.”

The impact of the covid-19 pandemic, though, caused district officials to rethink how to proceed.

Key aspects of the second phase include emphasizing career readiness for students, providing flexibility and opportunities for collaboration in available spaces, and bringing areas such as the auditorium, cafeteria and kitchen more in line with 21st-century standards.

Cassandra Renninger, head of DRAW Collective’s education design studio, provided the school board with possibilities for improvements at numerous locations around the building:

• Science area. Two classrooms would be moved to other parts of the school for the purpose of enlarging the remaining rooms.

• Music/performing arts area. The band and choral rooms — both “probably about half the size of what they should be,” Renninger said — would be enlarged, with a space now used for theatrical set design relocated.

• Auditorium. Updates would include walkways connecting the seating area with the stage, squaring off the front of the stage to provide for a more optimal performance area, and replacing the lighting and sound systems.

Another proposal is to install an electronic lift for lighting, which would eliminate the need for a catwalk high above the stage.

• Kitchen/cafeteria. Along with replacement of outdated equipment, a proposal is to reconfigure the cafeteria in the general format of a food court, according to Renninger.

“The students enter in one location. There are multiple stations for them to be able to pick up,” she said. “Typically, there might be an entrée or the daily menu item. Then there might be a grill, a deli, a pizza-pasta station and maybe a salad or specials area.”

• Administration/wellness area. Using the space of the former school library, before it was supplanted by a new media center included in the first phase of renovations, a suite for administrators could adjoin nursing and counseling offices.

The suggested placement of a large group instruction room within the area “provides us an opportunity for professional development for our teachers,” Imbarlina said. “Right now, we have to put everyone in the auditorium, which isn’t conducive to learning.”

• “Fab lab” (digital fabrication laboratory) area. A space for technical education, art studies, and family and consumer science would allow students in multiple disciplines to use specialized equipment such as three-dimensional printers and vinyl-cutting machines.

“We have a team that is already doing a lot of this in constricted space that doesn’t really accommodate it,” Loughead said. “There will be a lot more sharing going on, and that’s one of the good ideas of this, to not make it exclusive but to make it a space that is open and shareable.”

• Softball/multipurpose field. An area was graded during Phase I, and the next step would be to provide amenities such dugouts, fencing and synthetic turf.

“We are thinking that has the potential of being an alternate bid,” Renninger said, meaning that it could be bid separately from the main portion of the Phase II project.

A potential construction schedule presented by PJ Dick project manager Jason Day has work starting in April on the administration/wellness area, around the same time as the auditorium.

“Right after your spring musical of 2025, that area will be closed and turned over for construction,” he said, with targeted completion in advance of the following year’s production.

Work on the cafeteria and kitchen would start in the spring of 2026 and last approximately four months, taking it into the early stages of the 2026-27 school year.

The district plans to finance the project through bond issues in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Issues of up to $10 million of tax-exempt bonds during a single calendar year qualify to be sold directly to banks. The result generally is a more favorable interest rate, according to Jeff Kline, school district director of administrative services/transportation.

Bank-qualified bonds also can be called by the issuer earlier than usual, which could save the district money on debt service.