Fall Brook Elementary School Educational Planning - MSBA

The well-loved but aging Fall Brook Elementary School was selected to advance into the Feasibility Study Phase of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) process. In collaboration with MDS/Miller Dyer Spears, the architects, and LeftField, the Owner’s Project Manager, Vaysen Studio led a comprehensive and exploratory educational planning effort.

Through a series of engagement sessions including walkthroughs, educational adequacy review, interviews, student workshops, educator workshops, and multi-lingual community events we developed an understanding of the unique Fall Brook community and the vision they have for the next generation. Community support and student agency remained a consistent theme throughout all conversations.

The new Fall Brook School will foster the development of lifelong skills for health and wellness, social emotional intelligence, and self-accountability.

In collaboration with stakeholders, Vaysen established desired outcomes, desired experiences, and desired spaces as benchmarks to keep the project on track. These continue to be a touchpoint as the project progresses, ensuring at every phase as the building is refined it is meeting its goals. With a strong community emphasis- the building was organized around a “heart of the school” where all students and teachers come together and pass by each other multiple times a day. This is a similar circulation pattern to their existing building where the much beloved fishpond in the main entry becomes a place of connection for all Fall Brook community members.

Agency Through Design

As the project progressed into Schematic Design, Vaysen Studio and the design team continued to meet with educators and students to more deeply explore how individual classrooms can best support the overall goals. Students worked through a “design your learning environment” activity, an active step towards supporting the vision of having agency in their own learning. With educators, Vaysen Studio created and refined a rubric to evaluate concepts against established goals for clear and productive dialogue with the design team.

Client

Leominster Public Schools

Services

Stakeholder Engagement
Visioning
Master Planning
Physical & Program Capacity Study
Educational Program Assessment
Space Planning & Assessment

Location

Leominster, MA