CGS speaks out on the Middle School move
By Alyssa Zhang ‘20
After a 112-year history as part of the heart of Oregon’s art culture, the Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) closed its doors for what seemed like the last time in May 2019. However, with Catlin Gabel School’s (CGS) purchase of the campus and plans for relocation of the CGS Middle School, a new door was opened for many possibilities and with that, a myriad of opinions from teachers, administrators, students, and parents.
Catlin Gabel and OCAC campuses. Courtesy of Google Maps.
According to a family newsletter sent on Oct. 3 by Head of School Tim Bazemore and an official statement by CGS, CGS has decided to move the Middle School to the former OCAC campus, temporarily dubbed the East Campus. CGS has also decided to keep the OCAC’s legacy alive by hosting art workshops for the community on the East Campus. This change is projected to be put into effect by the start of the 2023 school year.
CGS ultimately chose to move the Middle School because the benefits outweighed the losses and it best fit financial, enrollment, spatial, experiential, and communal conditions and needs, said Assistant Head of School Barbara Ostos.
This decision did not come without extensive deliberation, planning, and reasoning. So far, as presented by the Oct. 15 Parent/Guardian Town Hall slideshow, community input, administrative discussions, and construction analyses have been taking place since May 2019.
There is still ongoing discussion about how moving the Middle School will affect current Lower School families, Middle School teachers, and the wider school culture. Some of the biggest concerns administration has come across are listed in the slideshow as “one-school culture, intra-campus travel, access to athletics, [and] crossover students.”
Some of these thoughts and questions were presented at the Town Hall by parents/guardians.
Ostos shared that one of the common concerns about the move has been, “What about the one-school culture, and how do we do that on two campuses now?”
Ostos is hopeful that a combination of time and new facilities will function to build a cohesive campus.
“Luckily, we have years in the making to figure that out as well as, hopefully, a new wellness/athletics complex that will join these two campuses down towards the field area,” she said.
According to Ostos, a few other common questions were “How will the Middle School be different or the same?” and “How will middle schoolers at the time experience it and how do we care for their experience?”
Some of the community members that are most impacted by the move will be current Middle School teachers, current lower schoolers, and current Lower School parents/guardians. A few of these community members volunteered to share their opinions with CatlinSpeak.
“I have two minds about it,” said Upper and Middle School music teacher Mark Pritchard, commenting that the middle school experience is “such an important part of a kid’s life.”
Pritchard thinks that allocating a campus to only middle schoolers “is probably a good move to support… who they are and what they do.”
He also expressed desires for CGS in the future. “Hopefully as the school expands into experiential education more, the facilities will reflect that and it’ll be a great place for the Middle School kids to be,” he said. In particular, he hopes that the OCAC will provide spaces for fine arts, other classes, and gatherings like meetings and performances.
However, Pritchard still has some concerns about the move.
“On the other hand, I have some concerns spitting the school up geographically,” Pritchard continued. “One of the cool things about Catlin’s history is that it’s a PS-12 school all on the same campus. I would think it would make [cooperative] opportunities even harder when we’re a seven-minute walk away.”
He also expressed concern about students’ access to facilities currently at the main campus. “Will they need to come back to the main school for P.E. or will we have a facility for that?” he wondered.
Media Teacher Brendan Gill also shared his opinion on the OCAC move. Gill teaches across the Middle and Upper School which gives him a different outlook on the matter from other faculty. Gill is not sure how the move will affect teachers like him.
“That is actually a big question among cross-divisional art teachers,” said Gill. “How are we going to be two places at once?”
Gill said it could prove “maybe impossible, maybe possible” to get from the main campus to the East Campus to teach cross-divisional classes. “As art teachers, we’re a little bit anxious about it. It might be that we have to pick a division,” he said.
Regardless, he does not see any curricular changes for his classes since “you can kind of do [media arts] anywhere,” but it would be different for classes that need spaces designed for specific activities (e.g. woodworking or drama).
“For those that actually need real spaces, that’s really another piece where there’s a lot of question marks as they renovate the new campus. What will they add?” Gill wondered.
Similarly to Pritchard, Gill is excited about some aspects of the move. He is most looking forward to gaining access to the darkrooms at the East Campus.
“I would love for them to keep one small darkroom,” he said. He shared that printing negatives and using enlargers, chemical baths, and red light would be “the most interesting thing for kids.”
Aside from teachers, Lower School families are greatly impacted by this move as well, though generally on a more personal level. Lower and Upper School parent Dana Walton-Macaulay feels the positive and negative effects of the move on their children.
“For the Middle School to have a new space and to make it their own is really exciting for me,” said Walton-Macaulay. “But I think it’s also fair for me to say that my older kids didn’t go to middle school there, so I don’t have the same attachment as other families.”
For Walton-Macaulay, the move has less of a logistical impact on her and her family as well. “By the time my lower schooler gets to middle school, it won’t be a problem. If [the move] happened this month, it would be a bit of a hassle because I would have to drop off half of the kids at the main campus and then drive up [to the East Campus],” she said.
On the other hand, Lower School parent Ostos expressed uncertainty about school drop-off.
“As a parent I think ‘Oh my gosh, what would drop-off look like? So, is the bus dropping off [at the East Campus] or do I have to drop [my daughter] off over there and come back [to the main campus]?’ So that’s what I think is also the Lower School parent mindset,” said Ostos.
Conversations at home have also brought Lower schoolers’ opinions to the table in some households. For instance, Ostos decided to talk to her daughter, who is currently enrolled in the Lower School, about the move.
“Initially she was not very excited about sixth and seventh grade [on the main campus] and then moving [to the East Campus] for eighth grade. She was like ‘What’s that going to mean? We don’t get to finish our middle school experience,’” she paraphrased.
“But the more we think and talk about how we are going to be talking to [lower schoolers] about what could be… and how we get their voice in the design of it, [the more] she started coming around to it,” Ostos shared.
Although the decision is final, there is still a wide variety of opinions on the move. Teachers, administrators, and parents will be working towards the common goal of creating a smooth transition to being a two-part campus.