Greenfield opens upper school building

Greenfield School cut the ribbon on its new upper school building Tuesday evening and welcomed its 437 students back for the 2024-25 academic year on Wednesday morning. The opening of the new high school building ended the $1.5 million “Expansion of Excellence” capital campaign that raised funds for not only the building of the new upper school, but also for several renovation projects across the school’s campus.

Greenfield’s enrollment has nearly doubled in the past five years, creating the need for new classroom space. The new upper school building contains 10 classrooms, common spaces for student use, restrooms, offices and a teacher workspace. One of the classrooms is a science, technology, engineering and math (or STEM) lab.

“This is nothing short of miraculous to me,” said Deb Rogers, head of Greenfield School, in her welcome remarks at Tuesday’s ribbon cutting. “One of the most wonderful things about being in education is that I get to see so many times and in so many ways, the lengths that people will go to to take care of their kids, and their grandkids and often other people’s kids. There is an instinctive and powerful drive to protect and support our children, to give them what they need to be to be successful in the world. This building and the other improvements on our campus are absolutely a testament to that and a powerful testament of your love for our children.”

Rogers thanked the board of trustees and in particular Dee Boyd, school board chair; Dan Whaley and Dr. Peggy Metts, past chairs; Worth Joyner, chair of the finance committee; and Jeff Ross, chair of the building committee.

“They have been absolutely ‘boots on the ground’ in keeping things moving forward, and their support has been instrumental,” Rogers said.

Contributions for named spaces within the upper school building include the Beth Peters’ Classroom; the Coulter Family STEM Lab; the Hackney Family Classroom; the Hodge, Scholl and Walser Family Classroom; the Robin and Bobby Johnson Family Classroom; and the Ross Family Science Lab.

After the ribbon cutting, attendees toured the new building where teachers answered questions about their new classrooms.

Leighana Pace, an upper school math teacher, who is starting her fourth year as a Greenfield teacher, was grateful for the new building and the technology made available to her and her students.

“As a teacher, it shows that the school has pride in what we’re doing for the students, that we were given this nice new building and this new technology,” Pace said. “It’s encouraging to me, but it’s also challenging in that I have to teach totally different now (because of the new technology), but it also shows that the school believes in us and is backing us.”

Pace pointed to the large screen mounted to the wall at the front of her classroom as an example of one of the biggest differences in the way she will teach from now on.

“This is an interactive panel, basically a giant computer on the wall,” she said. “I was teaching on white boards before. Now, a have a huge touch screen tablet that I can project my notes and anything else on it. The students can even come to the front of the classroom and use it.”

SCHOOL RENOVATIONS

The “Expansion of Excellence” campaign also funded various projects around the school’s campus, including renovations to school playgrounds, remodeling of the current upper school building for use by the lower school, creation of an art gallery, construction of additional bathroom facilities, paving of all gravel parking lots, enhancements to campus security, installation of air conditioning in the gym and landscaping of the central campus.

“We have a simple mission at Greenfield school — to give our students a high quality, rigorous education in a safe, joyful and nurturing environment,” Rogers said. “The joyful part is really important, because we want our students to understand that you can work really hard and take a lot of joy and pleasure in your life at the same time.”

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