By Hailey Spaeth ’17, Co-Editor-In-Chief
The North Campus Project, our four-part campus renovation, will conclude with the finishing of the new Early Childhood Center this fall and the Leonard Athletic Center next spring. While the nearly two year-long NCP has experienced some delays and setbacks, leaving a chunk of our campus unusable for the 2016-2017 school year, the project is guaranteed to produce a greatly improved North Campus. As Head of School Tony Jaccaci put it, “[Alamin Field] has always been our front yard… and [North Campus] has been our back yard. I think we are going to have two front yards now.”
The NCP will not only create a more functional and aesthetically pleasing campus, but will hopefully improve the way our students learn. For example, Mr. Jaccaci hopes that the new Early Childhood Center will “provide our teachers with a newer location to improve their ability to teach our youngest learners.” The Early Childhood Center, which will be completed in just a few months, is being built right next to the North Gym and LAC, bringing the younger students closer to the rest of the Lower School. The ECC is much closer in comparison to the House, the former home of the Early Childhood Program. Although the NCP committee and Board of Trustees had hoped that it would be ready for the first day of school, inclement weather throughout the summer prevented the project from staying on schedule. The ECC will be the home of Country Day’s youngest students, where children stay from as young as eighteen months until they are ready for preschool. Director of Enrollment Management Aaron Kellenberger said “The facility will continue to provide an important pipeline for enrollment in a nurturing environment.” The ECC will include four classrooms, a multipurpose room, a faculty meeting room, and a stage area. An improved playscape for all lower school students will be built in addition to the ECC.
The North Gym Complex, currently in the process of becoming the new Leonard Athletic Center or LAC, was originally going to be finished in time for winter sports such as swimming, basketball, gymnastics, and wrestling, but there is a possibility it will be delayed further. When they began renovations last spring, the crew found that the conditions of the existing structures were not as sound as previously thought. As a result, additional renovations must be completed and the LAC will not be finished until later in 2017.
“[The school] is working very hard to get the North gym ready for the winter season,” but there is a possibility that teams will have only the South gym available for use in the winter, Mr. Jaccaci said. Athletic Director Chris Milmoe is working on contingency plans for winter sports teams. He, along with his fellow cabinet members working on the NCP, is looking for a space, either on or off campus, where the wrestling and gymnastics teams will be able to practice. The swim team will likely be finding a pool off campus in which to practice and compete. In casual conversations, students have expressed concerns about this limited use of athletic facilities.
Senior swim captain Holly Jacobs feels that “[the renovation] could change the dynamic of the swim season since there are usually a lot of home meets.” Others feel that construction should have simply been started earlier. The widened pool and expanded seating area that will be added to our pool area will hopefully make the year of construction worthwhile for future Country Day swimmers. In addition, the LAC renovations will include new athletic offices, a wet classroom, a concession stand, a student waiting area, renovated boys’ and girls’ locker rooms, as well as an updated weight room.
Mr. Jaccaci has no doubt that the 2016-2017 school year “will be a challenge for all athletes, in not only the Upper School but also for Lower and Middle Schoolers. Mr. Milmoe hopes that once completed, the LAC will “be a place where people want to be”, while Mr. Jaccaci’s sees it as a place “for all students to hang out.”
Although the NCP is nearing completion, the project had been in the works months before Mr. Jaccaci arrived on Country Day’s campus little more than a year ago. The plan was first formulated by former Head of School Rob Macrae. Barely even having been accustomed to our campus, Mr. Jaccaci said his job was “taking those ideas and plans and getting them closer to the time when they could be executed.” When asked about the most difficult part of the whole planning process, our Head of School said that it was the most “challenging to get all four of those buildings connected [with utilities].” The lights and sound systems in the amphitheater as well as plumbing and electrics in the LAC and ECC had to be all interconnected. Even more daunting, he felt, was having to quickly assimilate with a group of people Dr. Macrae had been working with for years. Mr. Jaccaci felt that “formulating relationships with the architects, construction firm, and the trustees was the hardest part… I had to work hard to build these new relationships. I hadn’t previously realized the complexity of the project.”
Now that Country Day is nearly three fourths of the way through the NCP, our headmaster has begun to look towards the future. He hopes to turn our focus away from the actual buildings on our campus and towards the students, teachers, and programs. Mr. Jaccaci want to “create new programs to build upon the great programs we already have, recruit and keep the best teachers, and focus on the pillars of our Long Range Plan.” And even though the NCP is centered on making physical changes to Country Day’s campus, Mr. Jaccaci is truly excited about what students and teachers are going to accomplish while utilizing our new infrastructure- “You could imagine [last year] the different programs but all of a sudden when you see them in action, that’s when it really gets exciting.”
