Go and do:

What: Community open house for new elementary school

When: 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24

Where: New school on Park Avenue, Auburn

First day of school: Aug. 30

Community invited to see Auburn’s new K-6 school

AUBURN – Construction of Auburn’s new elementary school is done.

Workers on Thursday were applying finishing touches. Desks and chairs were moved from delivery trucks to classrooms. A coat of polyurethane was drying on the gym floor. Computers were being connected and turned on.

It’s time, said Principal Vickie Gaylord, to show off the brand-new, $10 million K-6 school.

From 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, a community open house will be held at the Park Avenue school, Gaylord said.

“This will be a community open house,” Gaylord said. “It’s for anyone in Auburn who would like to come in and browse through the school. It’s not a meet-the-teacher night.”

The school, which students will soon name, replaces the Lake Street School, which closed last year.

Gaylord said she’s delighted with the new school, and can’t wait for everyone to see it before school opens on Aug. 30.

Makes her smile

“It’s a happy place to be. When you walk in here, you smile,” she said. “It’s bright. Parents are commenting that this feels good. It’s exciting.”

Each classroom has abundant windows that bring in the outdoors. The colors in halls, rooms and floors are bright and cheery.

The school will hold about 330 students. It has three floors. The lower floor is an open basement with a large art room, music room and “discovery room,” a place where kids can get messy with projects. The second, ground-level floor houses the main lobby, the library, the gymnasium with a stage that also opens into the cafeteria, and early-grade classrooms.

The third floor looks more mature, with older-student classrooms and bigger desks, student lockers, even a conference room for students and teachers. “It is spacious,” Gaylord said. “What we’re trying to do is make great use of the space.”

The school has yet to be named, but, that will change in mid-October when all students, from kindergarten to sixth grade, will be involved with the naming process that will include debates, rallies, campaigning and voting, Gaylord said. Teachers will use the what-name-should-our-school-be to teach Politics 101, she said.

“We’re hoping to have voting booths to really come to a conclusion on what we want to name our school,” she said. The election is to excite students about citizenship and teach them about being a contributing member of the community.

Students will have some guidance on name candidates. “It won’t be ‘The Tinkerbell School,'” Gaylord said with a chuckle.

Coming and going

Most of the school’s students will be walking and reach the school through a paved path that cuts up from Orchard Street to the school. For safety reasons, students who live on or across from Park Avenue will be bused, even if they live just yards away.

It’s not safe, Gaylord said, for students to walk on Park Avenue.

Normally, policy says that students need to live a half-mile or more before they can take a school bus to school. That policy has a clause that says exceptions are made when conditions are unsafe. “This is deemed to be unsafe,” Gaylord said. Park Avenue has no sidewalks. Often traffic speeds through what feels like a two-lane rural road much higher than the posted speed limits. Additionally, the road is hilly and has blind spots.

Officials are applying for grants to build sidewalks on Park Avenue, Gaylord said.

In addition to students being bused across Park Avenue, signs alerting motorists to the 15 mile-per-hour speed limit will flash from 7:45 to 8:25 a.m., and from 2:45 to 3 p.m. as students are coming and going.

Also, police cruisers will provide extra patrols and crack down on speeders to ensure student safety, Gaylord said.

“The speed limit will be enforced.”