“This is like something you'd see in the future.”

 

Brian Bentley, superintendent-director of Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School, gave state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg a grand tour of the new building, mere days before staff will enter its pristine halls for its first year of service.

 

Just beyond the new building’s main doorways is a conference room — a “showpiece” of the building according to Bentley. It’s built along a balcony, with glass walls that overlook what Assistant Superintendent and Principal Linda Weckesser called a vast “collaborative space” below, where students from different shops will work together.

 

“One of our goals in all our schools now is to have collaborative workspaces, because that’s a skill that kids need today,” Goldberg said. “We don’t just put people in cubbies.”

 

Other areas at the new Diman are also designed to encourage working together — science labs with prep rooms between them to share resources, extra wide hallways outside the academic classrooms where cafe? tables are set up for classmates to talk, joint areas where students can connect across multiple departments. Even the bathrooms are unisex, with private stalls but common hand-washing sinks.