Keystone School Campus Completion Projects
September 2007

Introduction

Between now and the middle of November, the Keystone Community will comment on the Strategic Planning documents prepared recently by the Board, senior administrators, and the school's consultant, ISM. The Strategic Planning documents proposed by the Board emphasize, among other items, "Campus Completion."

In a nutshell, Keystone School plans to be located at 119 East Craig, it plans to serve a student body roughly the same size it serves today, and it plans to renew its dedication to Academic Excellence. Strategically, we know that the Keystone campus "feel" contributes to the almost ultimate learning environment enjoyed by Keystone students today. By completing the present campus, we want to deepen the contribution that our surroundings make to the learning environment.

The proposal on strategic planning being discussed covers a period of six years. The Campus Completion Projects span that period of time. Some will go first and some will come later. Those decisions, actually, are called for as part of the strategic planning process.

Campus Completion Projects

This is a list of the Campus Completion Projects currently under consideration:

1. Sports Pavilion. To alleviate jamming up of the gym for PE and team practices, an open-air Sports Pavilion is proposed for the land east of Stevens Hall. Roughly, it would be the size of a basketball half-court. The pavilion would allow for Lower and Middle School PE to be in a covered environment (versus on the blacktop in back of Founders). Further, it would allow Middle School teams to have more practice time on campus for a range of sports---basketball, volleyball, and softball (drills).

2. West Hall Grounds. The land around West Hall, where our Second through Fourth Graders spend most of their time, needs to be made suitable for use and enjoyment by the students inside West Hall! The vision is for the formal shrubs to be replaced with attractive, but less intrusive plantings and for an Art Garden (in the plaza outside the art building) and a Theatre Garden (in the area behind the theatre where we all gather after plays). With luck, Keystone Lower School students will be playing on the lawns and gardens around West Hall shortly.

3. Common Room-Dining Hall-Founders Hall. From the Parent Council's concern about the noisy and even chaotic nature of lunch times has developed a plan for transforming the Dining Hall into a much more useable Common Room. In addition to remodeling, oriented toward better use and sound reduction, plans call for a better communication system for use when meetings are held there. In a quite natural way, this project will provide Keystone with a gracious, well-designed room suitable for all kinds of student, faculty, parent and alumni gatherings.

In totality, the changes envisioned for the Dining Hall will, in all likelihood, trigger the need for a comprehensive permit, including provisions to bring Founders Hall into ADA and other compliance. Meeting these requirements will call for additional alteration of Founders Hall areas away from the Dining Hall.

4. Parking Lot On Craig Across From the Post Office. Fortunately, Keystone expects to acquire approximately the majority of the vacant lot across Craig Place from the Post Office. The acquisition is just over 10,500 square feet. When leveled and fenced, this land will give us day parking (primarily for buses, faculty, and staff) and event parking in the evenings.

5. Carriage House and Science Center. For several months a small group of Board members, faculty, and parent advisors have worked toward conceptualizing modern science labs for Keystone School. How logical is that? How needed is that? The Carriage House, as an historic structure, lends itself fairly well to containing a few of the labs. A new, modern, attractive building is envisioned to the north of the Carriage House, replacing the "temporary" addition that now houses the music and Spanish classrooms. When contrasted to other Campus Completion projects, this one looms large both in costs, size and overall importance to Keystone School.

6. Perimeter Fence. This project has been all but completed. As most people in the community know, it was funded independently and outside the general budget of the school.

7. Campus Landscaping Improvements. We could do a much better job in providing our students attractive surroundings for their work. We need more spaces outside for students to use for their homework and socialization. The vision is for the wave of beautification to begin around West Hall and roll over the entire campus.

8. Classrooms Added to the Gym. A part of the gym is one story. It is the part that covers the locker rooms and rest rooms. It is the part closest to the Carriage House. In the early going, it appears feasible to add a "row" of classrooms over this part of the gym and even cantilever this row slightly over the area between the gym and the Carriage House. Given that Keystone School is committed to staying roughly the same size it is today, such a "row" of classrooms would do a lot to satisfy the school's need for classrooms.

9. Strategic Acquisitions. Keystone would welcome the opportunity to acquire the shopping center on North Main that is adjacent to the school and to acquire the Hildebrand House on the corner of McCullough and Woodlawn. The school is the natural, ultimate owner of these properties. Further, if space became available in the neighborhood for playing fields, Keystone should consider the advantages of having its athletic competitions and practices closer to home base. These are the kinds of acquisitions for which plans cannot be made; they can be anticipated and dreamed about, however. The deepening of the school's financial profile will make it possible for the school to act when opportunities present themselves.

10. Facilities Study and Other Outside Costs. The school needs a comprehensive facilities study that would serve as a basis for all of the work done on Campus Completion. Campus Completion implicates other outside costs as well.

11. Maintenance Endowment. Keystone School could benefit greatly from an endowment that funded or helped fund its annual maintenance budget. Going to school in historic buildings brings forth a special set of issues. Over time, such an endowment would relieve---in whole or in part---the burden of maintenance from the annual operating budget.

Funding and Timing

A big part of the strategic planning process will involve setting priorities among these projects. They may be approached in phases. Some may be suitable for early financing from within the existing community. Others, such as the Carriage House and Science Center, may require more of a campaign approach to financing, including potential donors outside the immediate community. Those decisions are, simply, to be determined as we work under the strategic plan for the next few years.