"St. Anne’s-Belfield School officials believe combining middle and elementary school students into a new building would benefit younger students while allowing the expansion of arts and science programs at the high school.

Officials have contracted with Bowie-Gridley Architects to design a new 90,000-square-foot facility on the existing elementary school site. The building is expected to cost as much as $30 million.

Combining middle-school and elementary students would provide a better learning environment while freeing the middle-school facility for remodeling and use by the high school, said David Lourie, St. Anne’s-Belfield’s head of school. The school has an estimated 300 elementary students and 230 middle-school students. Another 340 students are in the high school.

The school is scheduled to take its request for a special-use permit before the Albemarle County Planning Commission on July 8. It would then be up to the Board of Supervisors to decide whether to approve the project.

The new construction would be a major change for the school, which is a combination of two former independent schools, St. Anne’s and Belfield. The Belfield building, which currently houses pre-school through fourth grade, is 60 years old and in need of replacement, Lourie said.

“First and foremost, the reason for designing a new building is the need for a new facility,” Lourie said.

“This configuration would not only provide that but allow expanding the facility at the high school,” Lourie said. “We’re not trying to increase the enrollment. We want our size to remain the same. We just want to provide the best education we can.”

Lourie said the combined set-up allows students to maintain a connection to their elementary teachers and community while transitioning into high school.

“That’s also the traditional configuration for most independent schools,” he said. “If there’s only one move between elementary school and high school, it provides a sense of consistency and stability by keeping students in a familiar surrounding.”

Construction plans call for classroom clusters with common space and courtyards. The middle school would be remodeled to add science laboratories and facilities, art rooms and more music facilities and practice rooms.

“We’re creating clusters with large spaces where larger groups of students can come together,” Lourie said. “With a flexible space, if classes want to spill out into the common area for a project, that space is there. The classes also have access to the outdoors.”

Lourie said the school’s alumni and parents have been supportive of the effort. The school has received $21 million in donations as part of its endowment, a portion of which will likely help defray the construction costs. The Albemarle Industrial Development Authority already has agreed to issue bonds to finance the project, Lourie said.

St. Anne’s officials hope to start work in the fall and to occupy the new facility by the fall of 2010.

“People have really gotten behind the project,” Lourie said. “That’s important for it to be successful.”" (Bryan McKenzie, The Daily Progress, June 25, 2008)