One of the fastest-growing school districts in the Midwest is undergoing a $146 million expansion program to keep up with its increasing enrollment.

Carmel Clay Schools in Carmel, Ind., a suburb north of Indianapolis, is adding one new school, replacing another and renovating several more.

"Ten years ago Carmel had about 9,000 students," said Roger McMichael, the school district's assistant superintendent for business affairs. "Now we're at about 13,000, and the latest demographic shows another 2,000 students over the next 10 years. Part of the work being done is a response to that continued growth, and in the case of the renovated buildings, they need renovating."

Carmel is among the 10 largest of Indiana's nearly 300 school districts, he said.

The school district consists of Carmel High School, Clay Junior High, Carmel Junior High, nine elementary schools and the new Creekside Middle School, which is under construction. The new College Wood Elementary School is being built on the same site as Creekside.

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Team-Teaching Concept

Creekside will cost $30 million and will have a capacity for 1,200 pupils when it opens in fall 2004. It was designed around the middle school curriculum and the concept of team teaching, said architect and project manager Mike Schipp of Fanning/Howey Associates Inc. in Indianapolis.

"The idea is to create smaller learning environments," he added.

At one end of the 250,000-sq.-ft. building are three academic wings, or "houses," one each for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Pupils take their core classes here and travel to other areas of the building for physical education, music, art and dining. The wings converge at the media center, which is used by all grades.

The building design and the academic program help children make the transition between elementary and high school, said Tom Harmas, Creekside's principal.

"In the elementaries, students have one teacher who nurtures them, and that's all they know," he said. "Here, they have three or four teachers to spread out their experience.
They are not getting lost and they get to know their teachers better than if they had different teachers for six classes."

A High-Tech Environment

Creekside, like many new schools these days, will provide its pupils the latest in technology, security and environmental comfort. That translates to miles of pipes, ducts and cables. The building's design puts plumbing, sanitary and storm piping into the floor and everything else into the suspended ceiling for easy access.

"We organize it in layers," Schipp added. "The first 8 in. (of the ceiling) contain the lights and sprinklers. Above that is the cable track."

Also, in the academic wings, the science labs are placed near the media center to reduce the distance of some of the cabling, he said.

"You don't have to run it out to the outer ends of the buildings," he said.

Technology is "becoming more and more complicated and more important," said project manager Mike Hennessy of construction manager Skillman Corp. in Indianapolis. "Everybody is trying to be on the cutting edge. It's pretty typical that cabling is done during construction, but we don't buy the actual hardware until the end.
If it's a two-year project, computer technology changes during that time."

The one-story school has pitched, shingled roofs over the academic houses and central building areas to provide volume for mechanical mezzanines and distribution of ductwork and piping systems. Low-sloped roofs over the auditorium and gymnasiums help reduce the building's massive appearance.

Creekside sits at an angle to preserve as many existing mature trees as possible while maximizing its corner site. Construction began in May 2002, with Skillman providing construction management services.

Soccer Fields Moved

With the luxury of a 166-acre site, the staging of materials has been a breeze, even with College Wood Elementary School going up at the same time. Still, sequencing various construction activities has required coordination, and workers also had to consider the community soccer schedule.

Eight soccer fields, used by clubs and schools, were on the site, and they partially overlapped the new school's footprint. The project called for these fields to be moved and a ninth one built. That work had to be delayed until the end of soccer season.

As former farmland, the site also lacked utility services, and the project team was dependent upon the municipal timetable for installing them. When those installations took longer than expected, a temporary well was dug so that water would be available until city water was online. Propane was brought in for heat.

The exterior is clad in two colors of brick, one reddish brown and the other cream colored, with limestone trim. They are laid in an intricate pattern on the public side, another architectural technique to add interest and help break down the scale of the building.

The bricks came from Nebraska, but finding enough bricklayers wasn't easy. Several were hired from Canada to augment the crew of about 40, and they worked extra shifts.

"With all the building going on in this particular area, I'm sure that masons won't be the only trade that will be hard pressed here over the next few years," said Ron Farrand, the school district's director of facilities and transportation.

The biggest tormentor, at least during the first year, was weather.

"I've never lost as much time to weather as we did last winter, and then we turned around and had a bad spring," Farrand added.

Many crews worked Saturdays, and temporary enclosures were erected to get a jump on drywall.

With the building now enclosed, predictions are that the present winter will run more smoothly than the last one.

"We don't have to worry about being shut down," Farrand said. "Also, most of the paving is in so we're not traipsing through mud."

Carmel Clay Projects

Carmel, Ind.-based Carmel Clay Schools have $146 million in construction under way, including the following: