Schools enliven neotraditional town centers

The Seaside Neighborhood School opened in 1997. In terms of public schools, nothing like it has been built in decades. The building resembles a 100-year-old New England meeting house, albeit one equipped with modern, handicapped accessible lavatories, large, flexible space classrooms and high-speed internet access. It comfortably accommodates 75 students (grades six through eight) in a building that is 3,300 square feet, the size of many suburban single homes. The construction cost was $340,000, about the price of a small school during the Eisenhower administration. By modern suburban standards thefacility is tiny — inadequate, perhaps — yet it has been very popular, attracting the maximum students allowed under its charter during its first two years. One major advantage is that it has a teacher-pupil ratio of 12 to one, which makes it the envy of other public schools. The school’s design may be unique to a place like Seaside, the famous traditional neighborhood development (TND) on the Florida Panhandle. “The school is definitely the child of the design of the town, because the town is user-friendly and a learning laboratory,” says principal Rosemary Williams. “I couldn’t run a school like this where I’m from in Pennsylvania because you need a

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