MILLBURY, Ohio — Barbara Blake’s music classroom will be a hot spot for selfies Sunday afternoon at the new Lake Elementary School in Millbury.
“I’ve got the best mural in the building,” Mrs. Blake said Friday, during The Blade’s tour of the $36 million, state-of-the-art school.
F-L-Y-E-R-S is painted floor to ceiling in Lake’s colors of light blue and navy.
The fine arts hall, where Ms. Blake’s music room is located, also boasts band, art, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) classrooms. The art and STEM classrooms open to outside learning spaces.
The community is invited to tour the new school at 28150 Lemoyne Rd. from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will also be held.
Ms. Blake has been busy getting ready for the first day of school at Lake on Sept. 3, all the while marveling at her new classroom.
“The room is spacious. It’s bright. It’s clean. Kids have plenty of movement room for dancing,” said Ms. Blake, who has taught at Lake for 18 years.
Principal Mandy Wilburn said the music room mural has a dual purpose.
“It actually acts as a sound barrier,” she said, noting that the room shares a wall with the library.
The new elementary is 91,000 square feet and has 49 classrooms, compared to 29 in the former school. Ms. Wilburn said 800 students attend the school and there are 105 people on staff.
They are reveling in all the space, which was sorely lacking the old building, she said.
“It’s pretty grand to have a STEM room and art room, a music room, a library,” Ms. Wilburn said. “And also having a cafe-nasium and a gymnasium.”
The cafe-nasium is a huge space for students to have lunch — chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes are on the menu for the first day. The room will also be used for awards ceremonies, fund-raiser kickoffs, and community events, Ms. Wilburn said.
The gym can be used for, well, just gym.
There are open bathrooms in the school, with the sinks and paper towel holders visible from the hallway; the restroom stalls are private in the back of the area.
“It really is about a secure vision situation, and lots of schools are going to this open format,” Ms. Wilburn said.
Each classroom is equipped with Clevertouch technology, which is basically an interactive television, she said. For a kindergarten class, it can be use to learn letters and sounds. Students will also be able to move their name on the screen, to the “packing” or “buying” lunch lists, she said.
Chromebook laptops will be provided to each child.
Brad Blandin, Lake Local Schools board of education president, said he was impressed with the high-tech interactive environment in the classrooms.
“The biggest thing that stands out to me is technology,” Mr. Blandin said. “It’s a building customized to the needs of kids as they progress.”
There are wings for kindergarten/prekindergarten and first grade. The wings for second/third and fourth/fifth grades are on the second floor.
Three playgrounds for the different age groups are also new. The equipment for some of the younger children includes extra swings, swings for those with developmental disabilities, and a “gaga pit,” to play a popular ball game.
Vehicle-impact bollards will be installed along Lemoyne Road next week, as an added layer of protection at the main playground, Ms. Wilburn said.
One of the playgrounds, along with a new parking lot, is on the site of the former elementary, which was built in 1961 and demolished last month.
Ms. Wilburn is a 2000 graduate of Lake High School and attended the old elementary. This is her seventh year as principal.
While the new building is beautiful, cool, and spacious, it’s the staff and students that will give it a soul, she said.
“The environment is very important, but it’s also about the people,” Ms. Wilburn said. “But if you start with a nice space, and you start with a space that isn’t so sweaty-hot, then you can set the foundation for the day.”
Jeanette Davila, of Millbury, will be a third-grade para-professional at the new school. She was in the building Friday with her two children, Mila, a third grader, and Echo, a kindergartner.
“Definitely, the A/C,” she said, when asked about her favorite features of the school. “I love the windows in the classroom, the natural light.”
Mr. Blandin said a new school was necessary.
“We were getting to the point with the old elementary, where we simply couldn’t repair things,” he said. “At some point it becomes not worth it to pour money into it.”
The new school is funded with a 6-mill levy approved in November, 2021, of which 2.7 mills was designated for the new school and 3.3 mills to pay off the middle school bond.
The board ran into inflation issues and a $5 million deficit late last year. In January, it voted to make the building prekindergarten through fifth grade, putting the sixth grade in the middle school, and trimming each wing of the new school, eliminating four classrooms on each side.
New Lake Elementary features
• Preschool and kindergarten have a restroom in each classroom. All first-floor classrooms have sinks.
• Dedicated space for special education teachers and support personnel.
• Enhanced security controls.
• Building will have its own full-service cafeteria, eliminates the need for food to be stored and/or brought over from the high school and improves food options.
• Improved student drop-off and pick-up; bus traffic separated from drop-off/pick-up traffic.
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