Developing Educational Success
The new Templeton Elementary School is a story of patience and perseverance. SMMA was retained in 2002 to conduct a master plan for three elementary schools in the Narragansett Regional School District, which is comprised of the Towns of East Templeton, Templeton, and Baldwinsville, MA. Early on, it was determined that the schools needed to be replaced by a new building to provide a next-generation model for education. The existing school sites — Templeton Center at 3.1 acres, Baldwinville at 3.2 acres, and East Templeton at 1.3 acres — were determined to be too small for the proposed building, which aimed to serve pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students.
An expectation was set that the rural community of Templeton, MA could accommodate such a school. Over a period of approximately five years, 18 raw land sites were explored. This determined two obstacles: that much of the available undeveloped land contained significant amounts of protected wetlands, and that the Town did not have the resources to purchase a private site for a new building. Thus, SMMA revisited the centrally located Templeton Center site and began planning to convert its two existing aged facilities into the current Templeton Elementary School.
Due to a 2010 Capital Study project with the MSBA, funding, code requirements, and site availability, construction did not actually begin until early 2018. The new and enhanced footprint brings the existing facilities from 23,000 and 12,500 square feet respectively to a total of 92,735 square feet, while juxtaposing the rigidity of the previous buildings with the flexibility and cohesiveness of a new 21st century school.