Baldwin-Whitehall's R.A. Lutz Elementary ready for students

The R.A. Lutz Elementary School in Baldwin-Whitehall School District will be the educational home to more than 1,200 elementary students come Jan. 8.

The new school replaces W.R. Paynter Elementary School, which was built in 1969.

The new three-story building looks to blend modern technology with an emphasis on prioritizing learning spaces for all students.

C. Robert Schafer, lead project architect of HHSDR Architects & Engineers, said input from the school district played a major factor in designing the 48-classroom building.

“We had so much support from all the administration and staff,” Schafer said. “The scope of the project came from the school, and they wanted something to look nice and modern, but not out of place.”

Near the entrance of R.A. Lutz is the main lobby, with access to one of the four large group instructional rooms. The school will also have a collaborative library space attached to an interactive maker-space room for projects such as flying drones.

The school’s namesake, district superintendent Randal A. Lutz, played a vital role in the process. From leading focus groups to visiting more than a dozen schools in Western Pennsylvania, Lutz and the administration looked for practical ways to improve the new school.

“We’ve seen a lot of different spaces and areas,” Lutz said. “And we are trying to incorporate the best features into what we want.”

One of the modern spaces will be the elevated stage that separates and allows access to the gym and cafeteria.

“We have the gym set up for the standard basketball, volleyball type for physical education classes,” Lutz said. “The bleachers will extend to the edge of the floor to allow the competition advancement. Then they will extend even more for any kind of performance, so the whole student body can be in here at one time.”

The school will also have motion sensor-controlled LED lights to help with green initiatives and cost, according to Lutz.

Each classroom will also have hanging pendant speakers, which will help clarify teachers’ and students’ voices.

“The teachers will wear a microphone pendant, almost like an ID badge,” Lutz said. “Those speakers will capture and amplify the teachers’ voices. The hanging microphones will capture any student voices in the classroom, and all those voices will be amplified. It’s not a PA loudspeaker, but truly is a stereo speaker, where it’s a gentle surround-sound type of situation.”

And when the kids do not want to use their indoor voices, there is an outside enclosed rubber play surface with restrooms available. The play area will not have traditional school equipment, such as monkey bars or swings, due to safety concerns and accommodating all the students during recess, according to Lutz.

“Mostly in 20 minutes, the kids come out and they burn a lot of energy by just simply running around and playing tag and all kinds of different stuff,” he said.

Lutz has been superintendent of Baldwin-Whitehallfor more than a decade. He has also served as middle school principal, supervisor of curriculum and instruction, and assistant superintendent.

The decision to name the school after him was an easy one, according to Anthony DiCesaro, school board president.

“Our plans evolved over several discussions regarding what or who should be considered for the school’s name,” DiCesaro said. ”Each time we spoke, it came back to Dr. Lutz and his decades-long commitment to the students of the district. His leadership has always charted new paths for the district, creating a culture in which all who learn and work here feel supported to dare greatly, to explore and to try.”

A main focus on the new elementary school is the ability for collaboration.

Each floor will have large group instruction rooms that will give students more room or to work in conjunction with other classrooms.

“It’s a space where we can bring a couple of classrooms for kids together,” Lutz said.

The rooms will offer more “soft and collaborative type of seating” to encourage students to work together and feel comfortable, Lutz said.

The school will also feature a state-of-the-art maker space next to the library, which will include 3D printers and laser engravers.

And while a lot of consideration has gone into designing the school, there still is plenty of room available for teachers and students to leave their own mark.

‘There are a lot of spaces for teachers to display the kids’ work,” Lutz said. “They have the flat-top lockers so the teachers can display 3D-type art projects in the hallways. We’re trying to provide teachers with all kinds of surfaces to be able to display student work and products.”