Norwich ― Designs for the first two new elementary schools approved by voters last fall are starting to take shape, with approval this week of the educational components for the new John B. Stanton and Greeneville elementary schools.

No architectural renderings have been created yet, project officials told the Board of Education at a special meeting Wednesday. But while many of the components will be the same or similar for the four new elementary schools in the project, the exterior building designs, facades and materials will be individual to match the surrounding neighborhoods.

“The objective is to design a building that fits in with the neighborhood,” said Gregory Smolley, senior project manager for DRA Inc., the architectural firm for the first two schools. “You didn’t want to end up with cookie-cutter schools across the city.”

The Board of Education on Wednesday approved preliminary educational specifications for the first two schools to be built, the new Stanton and Greeneville elementary schools. The documents are attached to the Aug. 23 electronic special meeting agenda packet, and will be posted on the school’s main website once they are finalized.

The new Greeneville School, to be built on the grounds of a demolished former school at 165 Golden St. and adjacent city-owned property. The two schools have the same 79,978 square feet of building area with projections of enrollment capacities of 597 students.

Along with classrooms, offices, libraries, gymnasium and cafeteria spaces, each school will include office space for a school resource police officer and space for a school-based health center in addition to school nurses’ offices.

The school district this year is scrambling to house preschool in the cramped elementary schools after closing the Bishop Early Learning Center due to budget cuts. The new schools will have fully equipped preschool classrooms, with bathrooms and amenities. The new Stanton and Greeneville schools will have five preschool classrooms each, along with four kindergarten rooms and 20 classrooms for grades one through five.

Additional classrooms are planned for special education, music, reading and math intervention and for English language learners.

Smolley and Mike Faenza, hired by the school building committee as the owner’s representative/project manager, said all the city school projects will be designed with energy efficiencies at least 20% to 40% higher than minimum building code standards, as required for state grant reimbursements. In addition to mechanical efficiency components, designers will consider windows and building orientation on each property.

Stanton School will be built on the 386 New London Turnpike grounds of the existing school, which will be torn down once the new school is completed. Because Greeneville School will be built on vacant land, construction is expected to be slightly quicker. Greeneville is expected to be completed in July 2026 and Stanton in August 2026, with both schools are expected to open for the 2026-27 school year.

Each project faces a rigorous state approval process and then will require city planning and zoning permits. The education specifications approved Wednesday will be submitted to the state this week, well in advance of the Oct. 1 deadline, Faenza told the Board of Education. There will be three design phases before construction documents are prepared next summer and submitted for state approval in fall of 2024. Local permit applications will follow in November and December 2024, and project officials then will seek state approval to put the projects out to bid.

School Building Committee Chairman Mark Bettencourt said design work for the next two elementary schools, the John Moriarty and Uncas schools, and the complete renovation of Teachers Memorial Global Studies Magnet Middle School, are scheduled to begin next year, allowing for some overlapping schedules.

Voters last fall overwhelmingly approved a $385 million school construction bond to build the four new elementary schools and a complete renovation of the Global Studies middle school. The state legislature in the spring session boosted Norwich’s state reimbursement for approved expenses to 80% for the first two school projects. Bettencourt said the building committee hopes for similar reimbursement rates for the future schools.

c.bessette@theday.com

Editor’s note: This version corrects that the two new schools will have the same square footage of building area.