NEOMED and Bio-Med Science Academy are planning a joint project aimed at adding a four-story addition to The NEW (NEOMED Education and Wellness) Center at NEOMED’s Rootstown campus on Route 44.
The top two floors would be used by Bio-Med Science Academy, while the second floor would be shared, and the first floor will be under NEOMED’s control, according to John Wray, NEOMED’s vice president of administration and finance.
The four-floor addition will total about 87,000 square feet, according to Wray.
The $24 million to $25 million addition will address a basic need for space for Bio-Med Science Academy, said Stephanie Lammlein, chief administrative officer and superintendent for Bio-Med. The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission is contributing $12.4 million to the facility.
"We are almost at maximum capacity already," she said. "We have filled every nook and cranny of that school every day."
Wray said he believes the addition should be completed by July 2020.
The addition of another 30,000 square feet (15,000 square feet per floor) will bring Bio-Med to nearly 70,000 square feet. The NEOMED Bio-Med location serves high school students. Enrollment this year is 358 students at Bio-Med’s NEOMED location and 230 at the Shalersville location, which houses sixth- through eighth-grade students.
"The classes coming up at Shalersville have same cap we have here," she said. "We have wait lists; we’ve had a lottery the past several years."
The new Bio-Med floors would include three or four labs, additional makerspaces and areas that will foster group work, like the large room in the center of the school’s existing wing of the NEW Center, said Lammlein.
Wray said the plans are fluid for the first and second floors. The plan is to move the NEOMED bookstore to the first floor, which will take up about 2,000 square feet, and devote the remainder of the floor to medical offices.
"We’re in discussions with physician groups and hospitals about what they would like to see in that first floor," he said. "We’re planning to shell it out until we get a specific tenant."
He said that will hopefully open up potential partnerships between professional medical offices and NEOMED students, providing experience in a professional setting.
Lammlein said having the offices there may also enable some of the Bio-Med students to get some real-world experience, although she noted that "our kids are too young to do the same things as the NEOMED students."
"We’re kind of looking at how we can work together so my students that are in those pathways can gain that knowledge early," she said. "We’re working on building a health care track that’s more wholistic."
Bio-Med, a STEM school featuring a lot of group work, experimentation and invention, requires flexible space typical schools because of its focus on learning through projects and experience.
Wray said the school also is considering moving the Wasson Simulation Center to the shared second floor, which would enable the center to double its size, now 6,000 square feet. The center uses a combination of "standardized patients" and simulators to create realistic situations under which students train.
"We’ve kind of discussed what else we could put there that could benefit both learning groups," he said. "I think it’s still on the drawing board how that second floor space will be used."
He said the Wasson Center could be used by outside groups for training.
"I think what makes it truly fit best in that area, makes it fit with the NEW Center, is that it’s open to the community," he said. "The Wasson Center with its simulation not only does patient training, they do things with law enforcement."
He said the center can create role-playing scenarios involving patients with medical conditions or create situations police officers could use in their crisis intervention training, which teaches officers how best to approach individuals in unusual conditions, including those who are depressed, under the influence of drugs or not on their medication. He said the center could replicate a hostage situation, for instance.
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