SAUGUS — The construction of a new middle-high school with a design that reflects the town’s history is expected to begin by June.
Students should be walking the halls by 2020, said Jeannie Meredith, chairwoman of the School Committee.
The team designing the new middle-high school is well into a planning phase that involves in-depth back-and-forth on the school’s design with the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the quasi-independent government agency that funds public schools.
Tina Stanislaski, project manager with HMFH Architects Inc., said the team looked at historic buildings and sites in Saugus to draw inspiration for the school’s architecture.
The Saugus Iron Works that exists today is a reconstruction of the first successful, integrated iron works in the New World which produced wrought iron and cast iron products from 1646 to 1670. The site is considered the birthplace of the iron and steel industry in Colonial America, according to the National Park Service website.
“The power of that site is in the water wheel and that’s how they generated power to do what they needed to do,” she said at a meeting last month. “We looked at those as our different hubs in the classroom pods where the work is taking place for the STEAM program the town is promoting now.”
The bellows inside the iron works inspired the angular shapes in the school’s entrance, and the hallways that transport students to their classrooms will follow the route of the Saugus River.
The building is broken down into three parts and includes two classroom pods on either end of shared programs, like the gym, auditorium, and media center, said Stanislaski.
A light well will be featured in each of the classroom pods with a graphic that will teach students about the history of their town.
Tens of thousands of commuters who pass by the school on Route 1 will see a lit sign that lets them know they are passing by the heart of the town, she said.
Trees for the property will be grown at the town’s tree farm.
Suffolk Construction was chosen as the construction manager at-risk for the project in October.
The company has completed school building projects at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Suffolk University, and Everett High School. It is currently managing phased construction projects at Somerville High School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston College.
Voters overwhelmingly supported two debt exclusions to allow for the construction of the new school and a restructuring of the entire district during a special election in June.
PMA Consultants project director Kevin Nigro reported that the project remains on budget.
