Hudson High School

Overview

The new comprehensive high school for Hudson, MA accommodates 1,200 students in grades 8-12, and is spatially planned to overcome its “bigness” by grouping students in smaller communities of learning.

Self-contained clusters of classrooms, teacher planning, and support spaces accommodate 150-200 students and their core group of teachers. A large-group commons is shared by pairs of clusters to provide space for multi-media presentations, student governance, and socializing.

Advanced technology infrastructure links all spaces, and Hudson’s students participate in carefully monitored virtual high school programs that connect them to teaching resources throughout the world. Facilities support pre-professional training in TV and video production, radio broadcasting, robotics, networking, and technology maintenance.

Safe Learning magazine cited the school’s success at humanizing the traditional high school environment and decreasing the potential for student isolation and anti-social behavior that often plagues the high school years.

The school also plays a major role as a community resource in the surrounding Assabet River Valley Region. It serves a center for adult education, daycare, performing arts, and recreation. In 2005, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation honored Hudson High School for being a public school which best serves its educational goals, while strengthening public support for education, as an essential “blueprint for the 21stst Century”.

More recently, the facility was honored by the American Association of School Administrators for providing a model of a school-within-a-school, for excellent work on an occupied site, and for its clean and simple architectural solution.