New elementary school designed for future of learning

Damon Alvey has always been fascinated with construction projects.

“My dad was a builder, so I grew up in the world of painting, shingling, siding, and window repair,” he said.

As superintendent of the Vermillion School District, Dr. Alvey continues to get his fill of construction these days – mainly because a new elementary school is under construction at Vermillion.

“I love doing building projects, and I have done a few of them in my career,” Alvey said. “It’s energizing and it brings new life to the school and the community.”

The new Vermillion Elementary School will be connected to the existing middle school and is planned for five sections each of pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

It will include two classrooms each for junior kindergarten, Head Start, and preschool in addition to six special education rooms.

When completed, the new school will replace Vermillion’s two current elementary schools: Jolley Elementary and Austin Elementary.

Both elementary buildings are 67 years old, each school has similar wear and tear, and repairing only one school was not an option.

“We had to decide either to put significant dollars into both schools, which would have had its own set of concerns and challenges, versus one new setting,” Alvey said.

“When we talked about the construction of something new, it made sense to us to bring both buildings together.”

With that decision made, Vermillion School officials contacted TSP, Inc.

The main goal was a school designed to meet the individual needs of pre-K through fifth-grade students in one location, while maintaining the connections found in a neighborhood school.

“We asked the TSP team to think through that and give us the best proposal to achieve that, and I think they did,” Alvey said.

The new Vermillion Elementary is a modular design to provide flexibility and growth within individual grades or the overall student body. Other design priorities include improved student engagement through the availability of non-traditional learning spaces and more collaboration space for faculty and staff to reinforce instructional efforts.

TSP Architect Greg Schoer credits the Vermillion School District team for much of the project’s success.

“Damon led the charge, and the entire team was moving forward in one direction,” Schoer said. “District administrators, the school board, and the community were clear in sharing their vision for a new elementary school, which will positively impact the district and the community for years to come.”

Every classroom wing is designed for two grades, with a classroom commons in each wing. The commons includes additional multi-purpose space that can be shared between classrooms and used for a variety of functions.

All classroom wings also feature flexible classroom space. This flex classroom will be available when there are larger student numbers in a specific grade, and it can also be utilized as a faculty touchdown spot when students do not need the space.

The school will feature a multi-purpose room that will function as a cafeteria and auxiliary gym. It will also incorporate outdoor classrooms to help reinforce the modularity of each wing and allow for easy compartmentalization of different building sectors.

Every classroom will have access to natural daylight, either through large exterior windows in the main classrooms or high clerestory windows in the commons and flexible classrooms.

“Maximizing daylight into all the spaces helps not only to determine the exterior design, but it also benefits the users of the space,” Schoer said, “as research shows that natural light improves student performance, mood, and concentration levels.”

Completion of the new Vermillion Elementary School is scheduled for July 2024. Hausman Construction is the project construction manager.

The Vermillion School District is working on a proposal to gift Jolley Elementary to the city of Vermillion, which then would develop the property for housing and a park.

The district is also exploring the possibility of transforming Austin Elementary into a permanent space for the Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Plains.

“It has been a priority of our district leaders and school board to repurpose our old elementary schools if at all possible for the betterment of the community,” Alvey said.

TSP’s previous work in the Vermillion School District includes an administrative office and classroom addition at Vermillion High School and an addition at Jolley Elementary School.

“We’ve had the relationship with TSP for several years, so it was a natural thing that when we looked at an elementary, we looked to TSP to start talking about that,” Alvey said.

Preparing for a bond election to fund the elementary school project took several months of communication, school visits, and listening sessions.

“TSP invested in those opportunities to be involved and help all stakeholders understand our project and what it entailed,” Alvey said. “Having TSP lead our team in discussion and share their experiences was a valuable addition to our plan.”

Vermillion School District voters supported the bond election with nearly 75 percent approval in October 2021.

Because of the number of stakeholders to keep informed, Alvey does not worry about over-communicating during the design and construction of a major school project.

An established meeting schedule, walkthrough tours, and Zoom conferences help to answer spur-of-the-moment questions or concerns.

“We have been extremely satisfied in our ability to communicate with the TSP team and their ability to drive our project forward by inviting the right partners to the conversation,” Alvey said.

Schoer is grateful for his involvement in a state-of-the-art project with a secondary benefit of repurposing spaces in the city of Vermillion.

“The design of this new elementary school shows the commitment from the community and its educators to the current and future generations,” he said.