MILTON, W.Va.— Students, staff and guests gathered Tuesday morning to cut the ribbon to unveil their new school.
Construction on the new Milton Elementary School began in May of 2023 and students and staff will be moving into it when students get back from Christmas break on January 7th. The new school will be moving from their old location in the city to their newer location on the hill, not too far from the old building.
The new school is about 100 acres and has two stories which will hold Pre-K through fifth grade.
Principal Shannon Leggett says that the newer location is quieter than the old location. And she said that the fourth-grade hallways would no longer be subjected to flooding, because of the elevation of the newer building.
She also said that the teachers, after a short visit, feel a little bit better about the move.
“We came up about two or three weeks ago, the staff has not been able to come up and change is hard for a lot of people, not knowing things, so after they came up here, they felt a thousand times better about moving,” Leggett said.
She said that everything surrounding construction, and the transition went really well.
“The process was, it’s always difficult to go through the process of building, it’s like building a home,” Leggett said. “But it has gone smoothly, the contractors they made the transition here very smooth.”
Leggett said that a lot of thought went into the interior and the exterior.
“We had a design team that worked with the architects in the very beginning,” she said. “We had numerous meetings that were hours long, because we didn’t want the normal brick and mortar building, we wanted something that would reflect the community.”
The outside of the building is gray with some brick walls on the sides. When you’re inside, the walls are white with blue and they have wider hallways and classrooms, which is something that Leggett said the teachers had requested.
Fourth Grade teacher Jessica Holmes said that during the visit they were able to get pictures to surprise their students.
“We were able to snap some pictures for the kids and show them when they got back from Thanksgiving break,” Holmes said. “There just really excited to get into the new building and have better facilities and better places to learn.”
She also said that her students have expressed that they are also excited to have lockers, which align the hallways upstairs and downstairs.
Kindergarten teacher Shayna Nowalk says that there were a lot of emotions surrounding the new building. However, she said that seeing the reaction of the kids made the whole process worth it.
“We are so excited for our new building and come in,” Nowalk said. “And the excitement on their faces today as made it all worthwhile.”
She said that the students and staff are mostly looking forward to having bigger and cleaner classrooms to learn and teach in.
Leggett agreed saying that it was amazing to see the students’ reactions to their new school.
“It was great, I just watched Kindergartners go in their classroom and they were (in awe),” Leggett said. “It’s always great to see little kids like that.”