Expansion plans as presented by the Board of Education on Jan. 27 would build an addition to each of the two existing elementary schools. Clarendon School, designed in the 1960s, is a group of round buildings or pods with connected passageways. From above, the pattern looks remarkably like Star Trek’s spaceship, with one large round building, two groups of three pods to the west and two solo pods to the east. Designers of the original building never envisioned a need to expand, so none of these pods structurally support second floors. One of the solo pods served as Board of Education offices for years, but was converted to classroom space two years ago. Under the proposal, this pod would be connected to the rest of the school, and an additional more traditional building would be constructed in the lawn area on the west side of the exiting school. This section would also be connected by passageway to other pods. This building will contain rooms for speech, music, science, art, computer, and ESL classes. It will also have a classroom, a resource room, a janitor’s room, boys’ and girls’ bathrooms, and a satellite kitchen. Unlike the existing buildings, the new building would be constructed so that if the school needed even more space in the future, a second floor could be added. Architect Jamil Faridy said the external work can be done over the summer when construction would least affect school activities, with the interiors completed before the addition is attached to the rest of the school Partitioning of the rooms will allow school officials to expand or reduce the size of the rooms as needed. The addition will also provide Clarendon School with lunch space for the first time. Students currently use the gym for lunch. Huber Street School will get a single-floor addition that will take the space currently used as the school’s parking lot. The addition will provide the school with a front door leading to administrative offices. The existing front door leads to the gym. School officials have long complained that visitors had to travel through the hallways of the school to reach the main office. The addition would provide larger office space, two special education classrooms, four regular classrooms, plus a multi-purpose room with connecting kitchen. As in Clarendon School, Huber Street students have been having lunch in the gym, something that has often forced teachers to dismantle projects being presented there. “The gyms in both schools will stop serving as school cafeterias,” said board member Paul Amico. The new wing will have a faculty room as well as boys’ and girls’ restrooms. “New sections in both schools will be constructed with air-conditioning,” Faridy said, but he noted that the existing sections would remain without air conditioning. The construction bond would also include work on existing media centers in schools and on creating a computer room separate from the library in Huber Street School. As with the Clarendon School addition, the addition at Huber Street will include a second floor if future needs require the school to expand again. The expansion project will also allow the Board of Education to balance the enrollment of the two schools, although Board Member Ed Rittberg said the details would be released later in the year. Currently, Clarendon had nearly double the number of students as Huber Street. The addition at Clarendon would be 11,054 square feet. Huber Street School will see an addition of 14,700 square feet. Faridy said this makes program space in the two school equal.