M-DCPS School District Commissions Construction Company and Architect for the $85 Million Arthur & Polly Mays K-12 Conservatory of the Arts Project

In its regular meeting last Wednesday, the School Board of Miami-Dade County commissioned the James B. Pirtle Construction Company and Silva Architects, LLC to work on a project with an $85 million construction budget, combining the Arthur & Poll Mays 6-12 Conservatory of the Arts and Pine Villa Elementary into one campus.

The project will combine both schools into one, Arthur & Polly Mays K-12 Conservatory of the Arts Academy, with a Lower Academy building and an Upper Academy building. Thirteen buildings from Arthur & Polly Mays 6-12 Conservatory will be demolished, and 15 buildings from Pine Villa Elementary will be retrofitted to create the new K-12 facility, which has an estimated completion time of June 2029. 

The Lower Academy (K-5) will include kindergarten, intermediate, and exceptional bilingual education classes as well as art classrooms and a music lab. The Upper Academy (Grades 6-12) will include English, mathematics, social studies, and journalism classrooms as well as science demonstration classrooms. There will also be skills development, computer labs, and a Language Arts Black Box Theatre. Art, music and band classrooms, vocal classrooms, a piano, guitar lab, as well as a new media center and a state-of-the art broadcasting (CCTV) lab.

The facility will include locker rooms, gymnastics class, a dance room, a weight room, and a covered play area. 

The administration suites will include a historical exhibit area, a community partnership suite, administration offices, student services, and an integrated suite for the Children's Home Society. The school has an ongoing community partnership with that organization to help students in need.

The school will have a full kitchen with indoor dining for K-5 students and indoor/outdoor dining for 6-12 students.  There will also be a new K-12 will have a 700-seat auditorium with a stage, featuring an orchestra pit, storage, a prop area, dressing rooms, a Green Room, and a control booth/projection room. The auditorium will also feature a lobby, concessions, and a ticket booth.

As for the site improvements, there will be a new building façade on 216 Street and an entry plaza designed as a neighborhood landmark. There will also be a new K-5 welcoming entry plaza, serving as a secure student assembly area and an informal outdoor classroom with integrated seating. Two bus drop-offs and one parent drop-off will be part of the school’s infrastructure. There will also be new hard courts, playground equipment, and a covered play area.

Additionally, M-DCPS Procurement Management is in the process of leasing adjacent parcels of land to a private developer via public-private partnership. This initiative will provide workforce housing for teachers, support staff, and the surrounding community (not included under this scope of work).

The school will also prioritize environmental industry standards. The buildings will have an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) number of 25 or less. A building’s EUI reflects how much energy is being used per square foot. Most buildings average 56. And the project must adhere to one of the approved nationally recognized green building rating systems.

The project will also involve the creation of an energy model and a Life Cycle Cost Analysis. These are design strategies that require the use of a computer model based on tools and materials to determine how much energy the structure will use.

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