Community members visiting Columbus Middle School for the first time, Wednesday, described the new facility with one word: Wow.
“This is just awesome,” Mattye Whitten said, peering into the school”s dance studio. “I taught school for 32 years, and I”ve never seen a school like this.”
She predicts a spike in attendance this semester.
“I bet you”re going to have children who don”t miss not one day,” she said. “I wouldn”t want to miss not one day”
“It”s just beautiful,” said Dawn Dawkins, who teaches gifted classes at Cook and Sale elementary schools.
“I wanted to see it first hand. We”ve heard so much about it,” Dawkins said.
She wasn”t disappointed.
“I think the community should be very proud of this facility for its students,” she said.
“The technology, the facility, the space — you can tell that these are the top-of-the-line technology and tools, the best of the best,” said Holly Enberg, who also teaches gifted classes at Cook and Sale. “It reminds me of a college facility.”
Melanie Shaw, of West Point”s Waverley Mansion, stopped by for a visit. Area students visit the plantation mansion on field trips.
“It was really nice — the layout of the school. The magnet (art, science and broadcast) studios up front will be impressive when visitors come in through the front, the Falcons symbol in the marblework (in the rotunda). It”s wonderful,” Shaw said.
“I”m surprised at the size of the cafeteria and the selections they”ll offer the students there — everything from Presto Pizza to a Sub Station — it”s a wonderful selection of food,” she added.
Wade and Gail Ward live across highway 373 from the school and stopped by to check out their new neighbor.
“It”s bigger than it looks from across the street,” Gail Ward said.
“It”s high tech,” Wade Ward said. “The architect did a good job.”
“I”m just really impressed,” added Gail Ward. “It”ll be exciting to see when the kids get started.”
The Wards have a grandson in the first grade at Cook, who likely will enroll at the middle school.
And by then, the building still will look immaculate, Whitten predicts.
“Look at these bathrooms,” she said. “There shouldn”t be one mark ever put on the wall.”
Whitten believes students will take pride in the new building and work to keep it “beautiful.”
“Oh yeah, I think they”ll take care of it,” said Renett Duck, whose daughter, Markayla, is in the sixth grade.
“I”m hoping they”ll show some Falcon pride and take care of this place,” said E.J. Griffis, Columbus Air Force Base education liaison.
Griffis, who has been to public and Department of Defense schools throughout the country and also Turkey, England and Greece, marveled at Columbus Middle School.
“What a great facility for our children. All the technology, how it”s organized, what a great investment in education,” Griffis said. “I think this is a prudent use of resources.”
“It”s state of the art,” said Elsie Hopkins, whose daughter, Aneia, is in the sixth grade.
Shaketta Harrison”s favorite part of the school is the cafeteria. She”s not alone.
Restaurant-style booths and table seating are more inviting than the traditional lunchroom tables. Suspended cloud-shaped cutouts for a ceiling add to the ambiance.
“I think it”s really nice, she Harrison said of the entire building.
“I”m gonna like it,” Harison”s sixth-grade daughter, Kayla, said of going to school at the new facility.
“It”s tight. I like it,” said Angela Spencer, touring the school with her sons, Kendell Jr., a sixth-grader, and Jaylin , a seventh-grader.
The family was especially impressed with the dance studio and library. Kendell Sr. also noted the cafeteria.
Debra Moore, who teaches second grade at Fairview Elementary said the building was “Awesome, awesome, awesome. Just beautiful.”
“I see where my tax dollars go to — money well spent,” Moore said.
“It was nice. I think it was real nice,” Duck said. “The cafeteria — I love the cafeteria.”
Duck was excited about the desks, which feature unattached seating and spacious desktops shaped so they fit together in circles, semicircles and half-hexagons, to easily change the dynamic of the room — from full-group lectures to small-group assignments.
Many also noted the carpet. In patterns of purple and gray, the carpet is modular, so it can be replaced in small sections, if need be. It also is made from 100 percent recycled materials.
Most parents and other community members who attended Wednesday”s open house voted in a January 2007 bond issue referendum to issue up to $22 million to build the new school. It”s money well spent, they said.
Public tours continue today, from 4-8 p.m. The district”s more than 950 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders report to the new school on Jan. 19. Teachers migrate Jan. 18. Libraries will move on Friday.
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