Posted on

CC School District celebrates middle school’s grand opening

  • Charles City Middle School Principal Rick Gabel smiles after saying to the audience gathered at the new facility's grand opening on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016, "Welcome to Charles City Middle School." — Press photo by Chris Baldus

  • Community members tour through the new middle school during the August grand opening. File photo

Broad change for the community also marks personal changes for students

By Kate Hayden | khayden@charlescitypress.com

Charles City Middle School Principal Rick Gabel had been waiting to deliver his new favorite line on Sunday.

“Welcome to Charles City Middle School,” Gabel told the crowd at the CCMS grand opening. “I’ve been waiting to say that for a while now.”

The wait included 22 months of design and construction, fellow speaker Julie Holub, a 7th grade teacher noted. And previously, it included much more time for the School Board to approve a new middle school.

All that came to an end during the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony, after which families and community members spread out through the addition to Charles City High School.

“Today is the day many people weren’t sure would happen,” School Board President Scott Dight said in his speech.

More than 470 students are expected to enter the for the first day of class on Monday and begin using “learning studios” instead of traditional classrooms, “cave” spaces to study alone or work in small groups, and other unconventional touches.

“They wanted a tree house, which we gave them,” BLDD Architect Jean Underwood said in her speech. “They also wanted a trampoline and foam pit, which we did not give them.”

Middle school students and their parents got a peek at the  new school last week during an open house just for them.They also had opportunities during construction to see the school.

“We’ve had tours last spring with over 500 people touring,” Dight said.

Witnessing the crowd at the ribbon cutting ceremony marked a personal high point for Dight on the project, he told the Press.

“It was just an awesome feeling,” he said. “I’ve been awestruck for months coming in here, taking tours and looking at things to see the progress.

“We are the envy and talk of a lot of districts and communities in the state. We continue to have people call and ask questions, and we’re giving presentations in Des Moines and various state functions about our design process and the end result.

“I can’t say enough. It’s awesome.”

In his speech to the crowd that roughly filled half the bleachers and a third of the gymnasium floor, Dight also highlighted other school district projects, starting with the transportation center — or bus barn — being constructed behind the middle school. It was a project that’s been talked about for 20 years, and it’s getting done, he said.

The district has also hired a Realtor to find land to buy for a new sports complex. That will address a need that’s been talked about for more than 10 years, he said.

Early recommendations from a task force include baseball and softball fields to address the problems caused by flooding at Sportsmen’s Park.

“The sports complex, I’m confident we’ll move forward in that direction,” Dight told the Press.

In his speech, Dight said: “This project has thrust our community into the spotlight as one of the most progressive school buildings in the Midwest.

“This project puts students first. No longer was this board willing to say airline seating or factory-style schools are suitable for our children.

“No longer was this board willing to allow our children to miss school because they were sweating in the classroom.

“No longer was this board willing to spend dwindling general funds on a facility that was 1,000 square feet too large.”

He added that the new school does away with the idea of doing something the way it’s always been done “because that’s what we know, just because we’ve always done it that way and just because that’s what we’re comfortable with. We needed something better to prepare our students for the future.”

The Board of Education plans to move forward on improving the high school. Dight said it will begin discussing Phase Two of the single-campus project at its regular meetings. The second phase could potentially be an upgrade to the existing facility or brand-new building, he said.

“We want the same experience for our 9-12 grade students,” Dight told Sunday’s audience, to applause.

He said the district will use the same process that included students, teachers and the general public to choose a path and design the project.

After the ceremony, and amid chatter from community members and district officials, incoming sixth-graders Bailey Schweiger and Alexandra Griffen noted they have more changes to adjust to beyond a new building.

“There’s so many different classes,” Griffen said, looking over her schedule in one of the middle school’s small-group lounges. “We didn’t have Language, did we?”

“There’s Media and stuff,” Schweiger added.

The middle school’s tree house centerpiece in the school’s entry made a big impression — and the school’s colors and wide-open spaces help make the building feel familiar to the students, who had both toured the building twice before.

“It was different then when we went on our field trip. It was all dusty, and it wasn’t really finished (yet)”, Griffen recalled.

“From when it was dusty … it wasn’t what I imagined it would look like,” Schweiger said.

Editor Chris Baldus contributed to this report.

-20160829-

 

 

Social Share

LATEST NEWS