A New Chapter for Friends: The Lower School Project and Campus Master Plan
ration by the Board of a site location on the middle/upper campus for the new lower school building, and working with faculty & staff and parents to develop plans for a lower school facility that will most effectively support our program. Our internal steering committee will then work with our architect (WRT of Philadelphia) and project team during the schematic design phase to develop a formal plan, which we expect by early May 2020. One of the contingencies of the agreement of sale is to gain approval of this schematic design from the Alapocas Maintenance Corporation Board. A series of community meetings were held in fall 2019, including one at Homecoming. Attendees were able to view drawings representing lower school site location possibilites on the middle/upper school campus. A formal schematic design is expected to be presented in May 2020.
In October 2019, Wilmington Friends School entered into an agreement of sale with Incyte Corporation for Incyte to purchase about 20 acres of our lower school property for $50 million. Contingent on the close of the sale, this would allow us to build a stateof-the-art lower school on our middle/ upper school campus. This might also make it possible for us to implement improvements to our middle/upper school building, and, in concert with current fundraising initiatives, grow our endowment to support students, faculty/staff, and families. The current lower school facility was built in 1972. Prior to that, lower school was part of the campus at 101 School Road. While the new campus was an exciting and modern (at the time) space, the presence of the lower schoolers at the middle/upper school was missed by faculty and students alike. We are excited at the thought of having all of our students back together on one campus, this time with a brandnew space for lower school. Since the Board of Trustees anounced the sale, we have held a series of community meetings to provide informa-
tion and to seek feedback. We also have in place a dedicated email, progress@ wilmingtonfriends.org, to which our community can send questions and feedback. To date, we’ve heard both support and concern for what is to come. Some concerns raised pertain to traffic and use of the lower school driveway, as well as Incyte’s plans for the lower school property. We understand Incyte will develop and share their plans with the community following the company’s due diligence of the lower school property. We’ve also received questions about the arrangement of athletic fields and playground space and creative ideas to address those questions. Please note, the sale does not include Mellor Field (track/ turf) or the Bermuda grass field. At the same time, we’ve heard expressions of excitement for the new facility, a more close-knit school community, and the long-term sustainability of the School. We are committed to considering all of the feedback we have received in the next phase of this journey, and we have also shared relevent feedback with Incyte.
We will be sure to post updates on our web site under “About Friends,” “Lower School Project” as they arise. If you have any questions or comments about the project, feel free to contact progress@wilmingtonfriends.org.
PROJECT TIMELINE (ESTIMATED) October 2019 to August 2023 /RZHU 6FKRRO 5HPDLQV DW &XUUHQW /RFDWLRQ October 2019 to June 2021 %XLOGLQJ 'HVLJQ 0D\ and Approval Process As early as 2021 6DOH &ORVLQJ RQ /RZHU 6FKRRO Property 2021 to 2023 Construction; ASP Building Closes August 2023 1HZ %XLOGLQJ 2SHQLQJ
Our next steps include further exploWinter 2020 • QuakerMatters
25
