LEWISTON — Looking out a huge, new window at her desk, Montello Elementary School receptionist Connie Levesque has an excellent view.

The $270,000 entrance means she and anyone nearby can see who’s coming and going.

“Before, I could not even look out a window” Levesque said. There was no window.

“It’s more secure and more welcoming,” Principal James Cliffe said. “Parents come in, they don’t have to figure out where they’re going. Connie is right there.”

After visitors check in with Levesque, show their identification and tell her why they’re there, she buzzes them in.

“Some lucky teacher’s getting flowers today,” Cliffe said with a grin as a delivery person with flowers walked toward the building from the parking lot.

Once buzzed inside, there’s space for visitors to sit and wait for a student or meet with staff.

Cliffe said parents appreciate the improved security. “We had a lot of parents here today. They said they were thankful for it.”

Near the new entrance is a wide hallway where a narrow corridor used to be; that old corridor connected the classroom part of the building to the gym and cafeteria, which meant the whole student body had to pass through it.

The wide hall is three times the size of the old corridor, making it easier for students to pass, Cliffe said. The space is open and bright.

Enrollment at Montello Elementary this year was supposed to be less than last year because some students were moved to McMahon, which has 10 new classrooms.

But the number of students at Montello on Wednesday was 696, about the same as last spring, Cliffe said.

He wasn’t sure why the number wasn’t lower, other than that enrollment in the school district is growing.

“Here’s what you do,” he said. “You open the doors and say, ‘Welcome, we’re glad you’re here.’”

New student registrations meant the second-grade classes were too large, Cliffe said. Adjustments were made.

Sixth-grade teachers with smaller classes were asked to consolidate four classes into three, “so we can get another teacher downstairs to lighten those loads for our second-grade teachers,” Cliffe said. “Our teachers embraced that. We put another class in second grade.”