By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

DIXFIELD – Architects designing SAD 21’s new 300-pupil school are to return to the drawing board again after Monday night’s informational meeting.

Most directors and administrators didn’t like isolating prekindergarten classrooms in the eastern end of the key-shaped, two-story facility.

Some also didn’t like having a prekindergarten playground outside the twin classrooms in front of the building.

Superintendent Thomas Ward and SAD 21 Chairman Rick Colpitts suggested moving those classrooms to the rear of the building for safety concerns.

Both worried that it would be too easy for someone to snatch a child from the playground despite planned fencing.

However, Lyndon Keck of Portland Design Team Architects of Portland said such a move would place the playground in shadow during the winter, because it would be on the north side of the building.

Directors then decided to keep the two classrooms at the front-facing side of the building but switch them with administrative rooms.

Currently, classrooms are designed on two floors to surround a two-story library, with separate rooms for music and art to be placed at the other end in the key shape.

Keck also said that architects were planning to bring natural light into the building, using solar panels to preheat air, and photovoltaic technology.

“We would like to make the building a living laboratory so children can learn from the building,” Keck said.

Keck also explained issues such as having toilets in classrooms, carpet versus tile, gym floor construction, and lockers versus “cubbies.”

He said he wanted directors to “lock the plan down,” so that architects could then work on the “fun stuff,” the building’s exterior design, within the next two weeks.

The group is next scheduled to meet in three weeks during the board’s regular meeting.