Design of the future

Two final design schemes for a future Shorewood High School were presented during a community outreach meeting June 4 at the school’s library.

The purpose of the meeting was to gather community input about the two schemes so the public process can continue once school begins in the fall, Shorewood principal Bill Dunbar said.

The Shoreline School District has also recently been involved in a “comprehensive review of all documents, issues and parameters relating to the Shorewood site, specifically addressing the Ronald School and the Shoreline Historical Museum,” school district superintendent Sue Walker said.

“We want to make sure as we go forward, we do so in a manner that is compliant with the rules and regulations of Washington state law,” she said. The school district’s attorney, Rich Hill, completed a legal analysis earlier in the day that spelled out “fairly limited options” for the future use of Ronald School, according to Walker. A separate meeting was held on June 8 for residents to ask questions about Hill’s analysis (see related story).

One option is to incorporate the old Ronald School into the redesign of the new Shorewood campus. As such, Walker said, the building could either be used to house students or as a joint use for the school and the museum. The latter option would require a rental space for the museum to remain in the Ronald School building.

Selling the Ronald School and the ground beneath it could be another possibility, she said, as would be permitting the Ronald School to be moved to some other site.

One of seven goals guiding the redesign process according to Bassatti principal architect Lorne McConachie is a specialized design that honors the identity and history of the school and the district, including the Ronald School.

Throughout the meeting, parents, students, school staff and community members were asked to move through five stations discussing the educational goals of a new Shorewood and leave comments relating to both schemes.

The Ronald School building is intended for use as a library in both schemes A and B, McConachie said. The performing arts center is positioned in the northeastern corner of the site and classrooms are clustered throughout three stories in one main building. The size of a center courtyard, bus circle, practice field, parking and the gymnasium differ in the two schemes.

“I’m hearing a lot about parking and a lot about the Ronald School,” junior Kane Thomas, a student representative on the design team said. “I like Scheme A …but anything they build is going to be better than what we have now.”

Comments about the future use of the Ronald School appeared on every board and were varied.

Marianne Stephens, a mother of three in the Shoreline School District, said she liked the idea of using the historic building as a library.

“It’s not accurate to say they (the District) don’t understand history of Ronald School and I think it would be great as a library,” she said. “Or in a new location, with a more thoughtful presentation… a more family friendly location could be the best thing that’s happened to the museum.”

How Ronald School is incorporated — or not — into the new high school is controversial and the design team understands that, McConachie said. He has experience working on historic buildings located on school sites, but the 25-acre site is smaller than a typical high school of the same scale so the team also must be effective in the use of the overall space, he added.

Comments made at the meeting will be used to narrow the two options down to one so the team can focus on that scheme over the summer, according to McConachie.