‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’

Greenacres Middle School is rolling out the red carpet. After months of planning, and a few delays, the newly remodeled school is opening its doors for an open house and dedication celebration next Thursday. They’re calling the grand opening, “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” “We’re going to walk down a red carpet all dressed up and cut the ribbon,” said eighth-grader Makenzie Larson. “It’s going to be fun.”

Larson, the associated student body secretary, and her fellow incoming ASB officers are going to wear sequined flapper-style dresses and tuxes for the celebration for their school’s $8.4 million face-lift.

The students have been back since Sept. 9, when the Central Valley School District returned to classes. Last year the school’s 600 students attended University Center while their school underwent a yearlong renovation process.

The new building has 86,000 square feet of remodeled space, paid for with state matching funds from a $78 million construction bond passed in 1998 to build two new high schools. Two elementary schools, McDonald and Adams, have also been remodeled with the matching funds, and South Pines Elementary is being renovated this year.

“There was a point where we had to tear up half the floor in the halls, and students were walking over boards and tools. It was a mess,” said Greenacres Principal Vern Digiovanni.

With more than 5,900 square feet of new construction, the school has a new face and a new feel.

“The school is so much more open,” said Kyra Mueller-Yamamoto, 13. “You can get around a lot easier.”

Mueller-Yamamoto sat eating lunch with a group of friends in the school’s new cafeteria, which has large floor-to-ceiling windows facing Sprague Avenue and a new landscaped yard. The cafeteria also doubles as the new student commons area, complete with a new stage.

The school’s band and choir rooms moved to the old cafeteria area in the center of the building, with updated lighting and acoustical tiles.

The old cafeteria previously doubled as the student common area, where students in all three grades were mixed together, left to wander the halls in the mornings.

“Students would just walk this square hall in a circle for 30 minutes,” Digiovanni said. “Now they have somewhere to be.”

Sixth- and seventh-graders meet in the new cafeteria each morning and eighth-graders meet in the gym.

A new television studio was built for closed-circuit news broadcasts and a large lab for ScanTek, the district’s computer-based class that introduces students to the world of robotics, flight simulation and other science-related workplace skills.

Outside, six new tennis courts have been constructed, and the school’s parent drop-off areas were separated from the school buses.

The pie-shaped classrooms are gone. All the classrooms have new furniture, and contractors also raised the floor of the main gym and built a new roof four feet higher.

The gym floor had been sunken, which made it hard for the elderly and handicapped to come to events, Digiovanni said.

“We’re thrilled with how it turned out,” Digiovanni said. “This was really the work of many people, and now we’re thrilled to be able to share it with the community.”

The start of the school year got off to a harried start, with rumors the school wouldn’t be completed by the Sept. 9 start date.

Cold weather in November and January set the project behind about 12 days, and just days before school, contractors and teachers were scrambling to get the school ready.

Original plans were to have a back-to-school night on Sept. 7, but the school wasn’t ready.

“We were a bit ambitious,” Digiovanni said. “That was the same day we got occupancy to move back in.”

Since school started, teachers have been working with staff and students to prepare for the grand opening, with a Hollywood-glitz based on the 1930s musical, “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” Planning for the event began months ago, when students and staff were at the old University Center.

“We just want to celebrate the opening of our school, to show our pride,” said Michele Eickerman, who teaches media and technology.

For Eickerman, the grand opening has a personal connection.

“My mother opened this building when it was first built, so it’s been kind of fun for me,” Eickerman. “She came and helped me get my room ready.”

Eickerman, like many of the teachers and staff, is glad to finally get settled in, after moving twice last year to University Center and back.

“Some of us have moved three times, when some of us came up from the elementary schools to the middle school,” Eickerman said. “People have no idea how much stuff is in a school.”

Staff has also spent countless weekends and evenings putting things away and getting organized, she said. The athletic directors, along with teachers and staff, spent an entire weekend organizing sports equipment.

“This has been like moving a house, you know, when you don’t want to open a closet,” Digiovanni said. “We’re definitely cleaning house.”

The classrooms are mostly put away, except for the decorations lying about that students are preparing for the dedication celebration, including a giant wall border that looks like a film reel, which will feature old photographs of the school.

“It’s going to be a big party for the kids,” Eickerman said. “They’ll bring their parents, the band will play, the choir will sing, it’s going to be great.”