Oakwood Elementary remembers past, looks to future in new building

After a long wait, Oakwood Elementary School finally got to move into its new building.

Construction on the new building started last spring and ended this summer. Students started classes there on Aug. 22.

"It's huge," said Debbie Larsen, the principal's secretary. "It's like a junior high or high school."

Oakwood's student body is only about 450 strong, but the new building can easily hold 100 more, and will give the school plenty of room to grow. There is also more space to accommodate the schools' programs, including an art specialist, and possibly community activities such as adult education in the future, Principal Court Despain said.

In the present, the teachers are able to take advantage of modern educational technology such as Smart Boards, because the new building's electrical wiring is able to handle it. Students can interact with the Smart Boards directly, which greatly reduces the school's paper use. The building's green design--including energy-efficient lighting and double-pane windows--will also help reduce utility costs.

The old building's safety issues have been resolved in the new. The new building is up to earthquake safety standards, and its parking lot is larger and easier to maneuver through. There are separate areas for employee and public parking, and a bus-only lane.

"Everything is so much better," Despain said.

The new building also features air-conditioning, student lockers, a library and entry hall both full of natural light, a gym with hardwood flooring, new playground equipment, a giant chess game with its board set into the floor, and student art everywhere. Clay sculptures are displayed in many hallways, paintings adorn the choir room walls, and student-designed stained-glass will soon brighten the windows between the library and entry hall. The glass art has a four seasons theme, showing winter activities, mountain and lake scenes for spring and summer, and oak trees for fall. The new building also has more green space then the old, and its fields are already being used by community soccer leagues.

In all the excitement over everything new, the old has not been forgotten. The school brought with it the old metal letters that spelled "Oakwood Elementary" on the outside wall of the old building, and installed them over the main office inside the new building. There is also a section of red brick wall outside the library that came from the old building, and paver bricks laid into the main walkway leading to the front doors that have names of former teachers and students engraved on them.

"It's really the people inside the building that make it what it is," Larsen said.