Yellow Springs design team unveils wide‑ranging renovation plans for Mills Long and combined middle/high school

Designers for the Yellow Springs Exempted Village presented detailed renovation plans on the district’s second facilities community engagement meeting, proposing new security vestibules, clinic upgrades, reconfigured circulation, and a range of facility modernizations across Mills Long Elementary and the combined middle/high school.

Why it matters: the proposal would change building access and circulation for students and buses, alter restroom configurations based on teacher and student input, and position the district to pursue lower‑carbon HVAC and future solar or geothermal installations.

The presentation and key proposals
Presenter (the lead design presenter) walked the group through the Mills Long floor plan, saying, “We are proposing to add a new exterior vestibule here,” and describing a secure interior vestibule with badge access that would route visitors through reception before entry to the building. The design includes a renovated administrative suite, a clinic accessible from the corridor with an adjacent ADA‑compliant restroom, and two kindergarten classrooms with individual in‑classroom restrooms at teachers’ request.

On the library and classroom circulation, the Presenter said the 2002 addition created confusing traffic; the team proposes relocating the ramp system, adding a full‑height wall to acoustically separate classrooms from the library, and moving the library toward the back of the building to create more usable, quieter media space.

Restrooms, special education and student requests
Designers described converting larger restroom bays into wide, non‑gender restroom suites with individual stalls and low dividing walls after consulting teachers and students. The scheme also enlarges one restroom adjacent to a special‑education classroom and adds multiple small intervention and sensory spaces. School staff and a special‑education teacher emphasized the need for separate “well” and “sick” clinic areas; the Presenter confirmed a dedicated clinic is included in the plans.

Site circulation, parking and bicycles
On the middle/high school site plan, the Presenter outlined a reworked vehicle ingress that shifts and aligns an approach off South College Street to reduce conflicting left turns, consolidates an ingress lane, and adds angled and expanded parking with ADA spaces and a new athletic entrance. The design team said earlier plans that stretched a drop‑off lane to Paxton were pulled back to reduce cost and increase green space; the presentation noted the current site provides about 162 parking spaces and the parking calculation allows for 164. The plan proposes 50 bike parking spaces; an Active Transportation Committee member, who identified themselves in the meeting, asked for consideration of adding more bike capacity near the athletic field.

Gym, athletics and theater upgrades
The plan keeps the gym’s size and shape but modernizes mechanical systems, ceilings and lighting, with options for new flooring and paint. For the theater, designers proposed a substantial stage opening and backstage improvements: a 40‑foot‑wide by 17‑foot‑high proscenium, a scene shop with a 12‑foot roll door for set access, a mezzanine technical booth for sound and lighting, dressing rooms and backstage storage. The Presenter said the gym/venue layout could accommodate graduation setups of about 1,400 people.

Energy and mechanical strategy
On mechanical systems, the Presenter described a hot‑water loop with heat pumps and dedicated outdoor‑air units (DOAS/JOS units) that could make the buildings all‑electric and “solar ready,” and that geothermal remains a possible future addition pending engineering and lifecycle cost study. The team said engineers are still developing detailed cost‑of‑ownership data.

Safety, storm shelter and drainage
Attendees raised tornado‑shelter procedures and drainage concerns at the Walnut/Limestone corner; the design team said interior hallways would serve as storm shelter routes and that the village is aware of the drainage issue and that site work to address exterior slabs and drainage will be required during construction.

Questions, next steps and community input
Community members and staff pressed the team on details including door swing orientation, exterior glass in doors, pickup/drop‑off logistics, separate entrances for fifth/sixth graders and the size of sensory rooms. The Presenter repeated that printed drawings were available and that small‑group breakout tables would follow the presentation. “So our deliverable for smart design is next Tuesday,” the Presenter said, identifying the short near‑term milestone. The team also scheduled a kitchen equipment meeting to finalize food‑service details.

What’s next
Designers said 3‑D visualizations and refined drawings will be produced for the next session and that they will continue to study HVAC lifecycle costs and egress/code questions over exterior door removal. The community engagement session concluded with tables for attendees to annotate printed plans and provide further input.

Quotes (selected)
“We are proposing to add a new exterior vestibule here,” Presenter.
“So our deliverable for smart design is next Tuesday,” Presenter.

Attribution note: quotes and attributions in this article use names and role labels as recorded in the meeting transcript; when a speaker name was not recorded in the transcript, the article uses the functional role label assigned in the meeting roster.