MILLBURY, Ohio — Beginning with a staggered start on Sept. 3, Lake Elementary students will get to kick off the start of the 2024 school year in a brand new building.
The school decorated in blue and white has plenty of new amenities. Construction on the new school began in May 2023. It is the result of a November 2021 levy to replace the aging building, which was seeing increasing needs for maintenance.
Lake Elementary is designed to accommodate 49 classrooms this year. This is 20 more classrooms than the school had before the construction.
Each class is designed to accommodate interactive learning and students with disabilities and accessibility needs. Many of the rooms are equipped with interactive Clevertouch technology and Chromebooks for each students.
STEM and art classrooms have outdoor learning spaces, and preschool and kindergarten classrooms have their own restrooms inside. Outside the building, new and improved student drop-off and pick-up lanes have been created. The goal of the design was to separate the bus traffic from drop-off and pick-up traffic.
School officials told WTOL 11 the new layout increases overall parking spaces for the Lake Schools campus. They also said their students can get excited for the three new recess spaces and all new fenced in playgrounds.
"In addition to the amazing classrooms and the multiple playgrounds that we have, we also have the gymnasium and the new cafetorium that the students can enjoy, so there are just a lot of opportunities educationally for the students next week," said assistant principal Margaret Bernard.
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Getting back to class in a new building can take some planning. School leaders said it's going to be a unique opportunity to connect to students.
"To be in a community that's supportive and have a building for the students is great. Not everyone gets the opportunity to experience it. I'm so excited for the kids to get to be a part of it," said Bernard.
School principal Mandy Wilburn said there are events designed to make the transition smooth.
"We have our open house tomorrow they can bring their school supplies, they will meet their teacher, they will tour the building, see old friends and meet new friends," said Wilburn.
And she said the transition will start slowly to make it easier.
"We are also on a staggered start next week. The first three days of school we will have a third of the students start each day," she said.
Students with a last name starting with "A" through "I" begin on Tuesday Sept. 3., and everyone will be back together by that Friday.
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