07/08/02

Today we had another meeting of the RHS Design Team. We reviewed four more design schemes for RHS and the Design Team chose a scheme which was pretty much the same as the one choosen at our last meeting. This scheme uses the auditorium as a library, eliminating the balcony. The existing gyms, which were landmarked, would be eliminated in this scheme and replaced with the new auditorium. I wonder how this is going to fly with the landmark board, but of course the School District can claim that this is the only way they can meet the program requirements for RHS. I disagree, and was the lone dissenting vote against this scheme, as I voted for a scheme which would retain the auditorium as an auditorium and use the existing gyms as a library. This was a scheme which would cost more money to build, but we would have to get the School Board to allocate some of the five million that was allocated for land purchase to the general construction budget of RHS. This is something which is possible.

We also reviewed some "cluster" plans, which generated some discussion, to be further discussed at a later meeting.

This Wednesday, the selected scheme will be presented at the School Board meeting at 2:00. I will be there to comment. Public comment is welcome to anyone.

The next meeting of the RHS Design Team is on July 29 at 3:30 PM.

Andrea Wilson