Oohs and aahs as kids and parents get their first look at four new Peninsula schools

Even behind the masks, the “ooohs” and “aaahs” were audible.

Parents and kids were getting their first look last week at the newly finished Swift Water Elementary School, and the reviews were decidedly favorable.

“It’s really cool,” said Emily Carruthers, 8, who had just passed through the two-story atrium at the school entrance and was headed with her mom, Sarah, to see her new classroom.

Kids goggled at the basketball court and the stage, with its colored lights. They giggled and snuggled on the stairwell benches and the younger ones danced in anticipation as they spied the playground with its slides and swings — though those were still off-limits.

“It doesn’t get any newer than this,” said parent Nate Cruise, taking in the high-roofed atrium with his daughter, Lillian, 7, and wife, Maggie. The big space, which opens on to a gym, was crowded with parents and kids.

“I really love the community feel,” said Maggie Cruise. “We have seen several of our neighbors here already.”

At three other newly-opened schools, parents and kids were making similar discoveries during open houses held Sept. 1 and 2.

At Evergreen Elementary on the Key Peninsula, the big hit was the high ceiling with huge wooden beams. At Artondale, everyone loved the new connection between the gym and the playfields. Both schools, the oldest in the district, got ground-up remodels. Evergreen, before the levy, had only seven classrooms. Now it has 19.

Pioneer, the fourth new school, has been open for a while, occupied only by fifth-graders. Last week, the younger kids and their parents got a chance to tour the building, expanded from the old Boys and Girls Club. Pioneer will be a magnet school specializing in science, technology, engineering, art and math — the so-called “STEAM” subjects.

“Every one of the four new schools has something different,” said Pat Gillespie, the district’s capital projects manager. “They all have the same concept — big classrooms, lots of flexible space, but they all have their own flair.”

Evergreen, for instance, was designed with lots of wood, to fit in with the semi-rural environment, he said. Swift Water has a more urban feel, with a colorful exterior and lots of glass.

“I am so impressed with the quality, the spaciousness and the absolute attention to detail, the light and space,” said district Superintendent Krestin Bahr, who was one of the visitors to Swift Water last Tuesday. “Our buildings are well thought out and really the ultimate for our kids.”

She had just seen Evergreen and, like the kids, was awed by the high wooden beams.

“When you are inside the building, it almost seems like you are in a forest,” she said. “You really get a feeling of spaciousness.”

A risk that worked

The district took a risk when it decided to build four schools all at the same time, Gillespie said, but it worked. At the time, the system’s existing eight elementary schools were so crowded that kids were crammed into 66 portables around the district.

“One-third of our kids are in portable classrooms,” then-Superintendent Art Jarvis told The Gateway in November of 2018. “You have the equivalent of over two schools’ worth of kids in portables. We are virtually out of space.”

In February of 2019 Peninsula voters finally passed a $198 million bond issue. It paid for the construction of two new schools, Swift Water and Pioneer Elementary, and the replacement of two others, Artondale and Evergreen, the two oldest in the system.

“It’s not easy to build four schools at the same time,” said Gillespie last week. “There was some great teamwork behind the scenes.”

By a stroke of luck, construction was well underway on all four sites before the coronavirus pandemic really hit.

“In a way, we got in front of the pandemic,” Gillespie said. “We didn’t have the supply-chain problems that came later.”

There were some concessions to COVID-19. The June 2020 groundbreaking for Evergreen Elementary was “virtual” with students encouraged to tune in from home, and the school board shovelers decked out in masks.

Plenty of light and room

Last Tuesday, kids and their parents were lining up on the soccer field to meet their teachers and Gillespie gave a quick tour of the Swift Water building. Each of the 30 classrooms are 880 square feet, he noted — the size of a studio apartment. All of the furniture can be moved, including the big-screen television, and there are whiteboards on each wall.

“The teacher is not confined to one ‘teaching wall,’ but can orient the classroom different ways, depending on what is being taught,” he said.

The classrooms have light systems that can not only be dimmed — for using projectors or watching videos — but also adjusted for Kelvin temperature, from warm to cold.

“You might want a warm light to calm the kids down after lunch or recess, or a brighter, cooler one to get them more woken up in the morning,” Gillespie explained. “The teacher can control that.”

The 30 classrooms are laid out in pods of three or four around a central “flex area.” Teachers can use the flex space to send kids outside the classroom for special projects, but they can still watch them through each classroom’s large windows.

The flex concept is one that emerged through meetings with teachers and watching how they taught, Gillespie said. Another thing teachers asked for: Plenty of faculty restrooms. There are now several on each floor.

How many? “I’ve lost count,” Gillespie laughed.

‘Not in a closet anymore’

Restrooms for children are different, too, with the wash basins outside in the hallway, and several toilet stalls behind individual doors that can be used by either gender, just like at home. There are also wash stations at the principal entrances.

“Flex offices” have been provided that principals can use for the various counselors and specialists that used to have to roam.

“I’m not in a closet anymore!” exulted Mary West, a speech therapist who is transferring from Discovery Elementary. She sat in a chair in the hallway outside her new office, greetings kids she knew from her old school. Many of Swift Water’s older students are coming from Discovery.

“Hello John, welcome to Swift Water!” she called to a fifth-grader, who waved back as he passed by.

On a whiteboard outside Stephanie Santie’s kindergarten classroom was a welcome sign, done in colored marker pens, that read like a list of the most popular baby names of 2016: Jael, Micaela, Nora, Kaylee, Alex, Alaric, Clara, Scarlett, Gavin, Judson, Peter, Jaxon, Troy, Demi, Sarah, Ezra, Alessandra, Charlene, Claire, Lauren, Ryla and Nora.

Stairs a novelty

Many of the kids liked the stairs, a novelty in an era of one-story schools. The staircase landings, like most of the hallway window spaces, are lined with benches, so that kids can sit and socialize.

Marcie Trumbull said her 9-year-old, Major, “thinks it’s pretty cool his classroom is on the second floor.” Major, who will be in the fourth grade, nodded vigorously from behind his mask.

Other kids were wowed by the stage, especially the colored LED lights. Families posed their kids for pictures bathed in blue and pink.

When its movable wall is closed, Gillespie said, the stage becomes a music room. When it’s open, giant video screens offer a view to the parents in the back row, just as in big-time concert venues. There is even a 32-foot screen in the gym for overflow crowds.

Many of the parents who live in close-by neighborhoods, such as Harbor Ridge and Harbor Hills, said their kids were looking forward to walking or biking to school.

“I’m going to walk all by myself,” announced Maelin Manning, 5, drawing raised eyebrows from her father, Tristan. Maelin had forgotten her seven-year-old brother, Maddox, who stood nearby.

“We walked here together tonight,” said Greg Swanson, who was with his wife, Courtney, 8-year-old Julia, a third-grader, and Claire, 5, who will be in kindergarten. “At the other school, we were so far away, we never got to do this.”

“We’re really thankful we get to go here,” said Courtney Swanson. “It just seems like a special place with a special staff. We’ve got it all.”

This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.