news-record.com

One thing to remember Aug. 25 when you set out for school, Jamestown Middle School parents — car riders should be dropped off at the Haynes Road entrance of the new school.

Haynes Road is off Harvey Road, not too far down the road from the old school.

The middle school bus riders will have their own buses. No sharing with the high schoolers this year.

School officials are expecting students (and parents) to be wide-eyed with excitement at the long-awaited new school.
It’s loaded with new technology, computer and science labs, wider halls, a cafeteria that’ll seat a whole grade level and a gym big enough for the whole school to come together for pep rallies.

Talking about the benefits of the new school last week , Principal Denise Richmond seemed as wide-eyed as she expect students to be.

Most students and parents will get their first glimpse of the new school at a ribbon cutting and open house Saturday.

“My favorite part is all the natural light, wide hallways and the new technology,” she said.

Richmond can’t wait until the first day of school. “I want to see (the students’) reactions.”

Richmond said the new technology is going to be the biggest benefit to instruction. New tools include large flat screen TVs, projectors and interactive white boards that can be used with the teacher’s computer.

Each room will also include a document camera, something that’s reminiscent of old school overhead projectors. Anything from a book or a science experiment can be projected onto the white board.

An audio system will help students hear the teacher no matter where he or she is in the classroom. The same wireless audio system is in the main gym.

“The more a student hears, the more he learns,” Richmond said.

Each grade level will have its own computer and science labs, and there’s a mini-computer lab in the media center.

For athletics and P.E., there’s the main gym, an auxiliary gym, a track/football/soccer field, baseball field and a softball field.

The school design features sustainable materials, meaning less maintenance and expense.

Dennis Cole of the facilities department said, for example, instead of installing flooring that would require expensive stripping and waxing each year, the new school as linoleum made out of wood fiber and linseed oil.

Students should expect the hallways to be quieter because materials are more sound absorbing, Cole said.

The new building will also lack that new school smell. It was painted with low-Volatile Organic Compounds paint.

Other sustainable features include motion-sensor lights, toilets and sinks, plus light-colored roofing material to minimize the heat-island effect.

Now that all students are in the building and not scattered about in mobile units, all doors will be locked during the school day.

Entering the front door, visitors will step into a foyer with another set of glass doors, locked during the day, leading into the building. To the left will be a door into the office, which all visitors will need to enter and leave through during school hours.

The two-story school is larger. The old facility had a capacity of 800-plus students. The new building can hold up to 1,100.

Richmond’s staff said the current enrollment is at 1,061. Last year’s enrollment was 1,040.

There are big plans for the school’s first year in the new building.
There will be team celebrations because 37 of the school’s subgroups made their annual yearly progress goals.

There will be pep rallies in the gym now that there’s one big enough to hold everyone.

The principal foresees opportunities for environmental experiments with the land available around the school.

There’s a new professional broadcast studio, which Richmond expects the students to put to good use. “Our 'Good Morning’ show can grow in leaps and bounds,” she said. She envisions students reporting on sporting events and broadcasting them to the school.

Richmond said the PTSA has been wonderful and has lots planned for the year, including fundraisers to help get new athletic equipment and new technology to supplement the new tools.

The possibilities seem endless.

“Just being here is enough,” Richmond said.

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth.seagraves@news-record.com