Representatives from the city, Laconia School District, Laconia Memorial Middle School, ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge, Rist-Frost-Shumway/RFS Engineering, and Harvey Construction Corp. celebrated the groundbreaking of a new Memorial Middle School, $24.3 million project that will replace the existing Memorial Middle School. The 118,000 s/f facility will serve grades six through eight and will accommodate up to 750 students. The project will replace an existing 1961 facility with a new middle school building on the same site. Phasing of demolition and new construction is required in order for the current school to remain occupied during the construction process. Phase 1 consists of a 3-story academic wing that includes classrooms, administrative spaces and a library/media center. Phase 2 consists of a 1-story core wing, which will include a cafeteria and kitchen, gymnasium, multi-purpose room, and music classrooms. Phase 1 will be complete in fall 2008, with the completion of phase 2 to follow in fall 2009. Memorial Middle School has been designed to be a sustainable or "green" building in accordance with the New England Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), a non-profit organization that works to improve the quality of education for New England's children. New Hampshire recently recognized the CHPS program, and enacted legislation to provide additional school building aid for projects which meet specific CHPS criteria.