MICDS Requests Special Use Permit for New Math-Science Center on North End of Campus

Planners, including an architect from Connecticut will be on hand before the Ladue City Council Monday requesting an amendment to the special use permit to build a new science and math center on the north end of the Mary Institute Country Day School campus.

The monthly meeting will be held at 4 p.m. in the council chambers at Ladue City Hall.

Earlier this year, MICDS announced a $21.5 million dollar gift from the JSM Charitable Trust and the James. S. McDonnell III and Elizabeth Hall McDonnell family to make all of this possible.

The proposed math and science complex will rival newly developed ones at Kirkwood and Clayton high schools.

According to Ladue’s Building Commissioner Michael Gartenberg, the city will allow no movement forward on a project this scale until planning provisions are complete. “We wouldn’t allow them to take down the existing building or even do asbestos abatement until the city council has approved the entire site plan,” said Gartenberg.

“These are all the normal steps anyone would have to take in order to be approved for a building permit,” said Gartenberg. The requests by MICDS already has the recommendation of the Zoning & Planning Commission.

Once permits are approved, construction will be expected to last in the range of one year. The new facility will enhance MICDS’s curriculum and help the school to meet new, national science standards.

The 52,000 square foot facility will feature science and math rooms deliberately mixed together, including 1,200 square foot “clabs”-spaces that combine traditional space with laboratories conducive to hands  on learning. The facility’s classrooms will be 30 percent larger than those presently found in typical high schools.

The Ladue City Council is expected to approve the special use permit requested by the school on Monday.