Committee weighs renovating theater versus building an 800-seat auditorium at Middlesex Middle School

Committee members pressed consultants on whether to renovate the existing theater or pursue a larger 800-seat auditorium for community events and curricular concerts. Eric Kire described options and constraints, saying the renovation approach could enlarge the existing room to about 475–490 seats while an 800-seat option had previously been sized at 10,000 square feet "so that that would be about a $10,000,000 construction" but when adjacent music spaces are included that addition could be closer to "$16,000 to $18,000" (consultant estimate).

Members raised parking and scheduling tradeoffs with the high school auditorium and emphasized long-term capacity needs. One committee member urged showing both options to the full board and said: "If the board approves the larger set of ed specs... that's not to say that that's how it has to be built. It's just you're recommending the largest project, and then... you can reduce it down to what you ultimately need to do." Consultants also noted theater improvements would remove interior columns and extend stage depth to improve sight lines and acoustics.