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K -12 Master Plan Lexington Public Schools 5. Enrollment impact on MS needs Projects have recently been undertaken at the Middle Schools, and no major work is recommended in this study. What we will do here is look at the educational space requirements and pupil capacity of the middle schools relative to the projected enrollments, with particular regard to the question of the degree to which the remaining modular classrooms are required, and at what point in the future might they no longer be needed. As noted earlier, both middle school buildings underwent major renovation and expansion projects following the 1997 Master Plan. However, as also noted, the scope and cost of these projects was significantly reduced from what was recommended in the Master Plan. A block of six modular classrooms was installed at the Diamond School, reportedly at the time of the renovation /expansion project to provide swing space so the building could remain in use during construction. Those modular classrooms, which were left in place following completion of construction, remain in service today, and they are increasingly in need of maintenance and repairs. However, they do remain somewhat necessary. To explain why, it is necessary to digress briefly on the difference between a Middle School and a Junior High School. The pure concept of a Middle School includes the concept of Student Teams and Team Teaching, in which students are grouped into Teams of perhaps 60 to 100 students in 3 to 5 sections and a Teacher Team of 3 to 5 dedicated core subject teachers works with the Team. In a pure purpose -built Middle School, self- contained "team space" would usually be provided, consisting of a Science classroom and general classrooms so that the total provides for one room per section, allowing instruction in the core subjects to occur on a rotating basis within the team space for all students within the team. For other subjects, including Art, Music, Foreign Language (sometimes but not always), Health, PE and others, students would travel outside their "team space" to specialized instruction areas. By virtue of the amount of time students spend outside the team space, this model has a lower efficiency of space utilization than a High School or Junior High School model, where students rotate through classrooms that are assigned by discipline, and therefore a higher degree of scheduled utilization is possible. Design Partnership of Eamhridga