Rendering of the planned middle school for west-side Bend.

Parents and prospective students learned Monday evening that Bend’s newest middle school will have no classrooms.

Learning studios will replace classrooms, just one of the many planned innovations the architects at BBT Architects, a Bend firm, shared with community members while unveiling design plans for the new school, which is set to open in fall 2015.

Architects and members of the school district’s design team were on hand at Miller Elementary School to unveil a design for the new middle school, which will sit on 33 acres on Bend’s west side. The new school, which will hold 800 students and help ease overcrowding at area middle schools, is being built with part of a $96 million bond that voters approved in May. The bond also pays for construction of a new elementary school in southeast Bend.

The new, 115-000-square-foot middle school will sit between Miller Elementary on Northwest Crossing Drive and Summit High School on Northwest Clearwater Drive. A construction budget of $25,300,000 is set.

The new middle school will have many features designed around technological changes in education, said Renée Alexander of BBT Architects.

“Classrooms kind of conjure up this image of someone standing in front, talking at you for hours,” Alexander said. “They sound like places where you just learn and leave. Calling them learning studios breaks down that concept.”

Classrooms aren’t the only areas getting renamed in the new school. The school’s main room, located in the very heart of the school, will be called the Family Room. Alexander said the goal is to give students the feeling that they’re in a welcoming, community-driven space.

The new school is also being designed with a definite look toward future advances in learning.

“The challenge is to predict future needs,” said school board member Nori Juba, a member of the design team. “Not just in five years, but in 10, 20 and even 30 years.”

One example is a room that’s going to be dedicated to a new digital media program. The district doesn’t currently have a curriculum in place for the program, but design team members felt it was important to look ahead and anticipate the needs of future students.

“We have a dedicated space for (the digital media program), even though we don’t know exactly what it is yet,” Juba said. “Some people don’t understand why we would dedicate the space if we don’t have a course in it today. But we’re looking forward and thinking what skills students will need to have in the future.”

Loretta Moorhead took several photos on her camera phone of the map showing where the school will be situated. Moorhead wasn’t at the event as a parent, though.

“I’m here doing research about where the school will be positioned,” said Moorhead, a real estate broker with Windermere in Bend. “It’s important to understand. When someone’s buying a house, they want to know what school their kids will be going to.”

The issue of realigning school boundaries for the new middle school is on the horizon, said district communication director Julianne Repman. But the focus, for now, will be on moving forward with design and construction.

NorthWest Crossing resident Teri West brought her 10-year-old daughter, Janessa, to the event. Because her child may be a student at the middle school one day, West was interested in finding out first hand what the school district is planning.

“I love that there’s the possibility of sending my daughter to a brand new school,” West said. “I’ve actually been very impressed so far with the schematics.”

One aspect that particularly impressed West was that the new school would have a room dedicated to a digital program, which she has hopes that her daughter would get a chance to be involved in.

“It seems forward-thinking,” West said.

— Reporter; 541-383-0354, mkehoe@bendbulletin.com