Wyoming — Fifth- and sixth-graders were welcomed to Wyoming Intermediate School this week for the first day of school with greetings, smiles from their teachers and the smell of fresh paint.
“It feels fresher walking into the door when you see the lockers all painted bright purple, and the walls all creamy,” said English-language learner paraprofessional Jinny Villalobos as she prepared to meet new students. “Even the smell of paint makes you feel invigorated.”
The deeply hued lockers and glossy walls are finishing touches on about $10 million in bond-funded renovations that have taken place at the school over the last two years, including updated classrooms, mechanical upgrades, improved lighting, a cafeteria expansion, new windows and security, new furniture and the addition of ramps for accessibility.
“It’s great to see the kids walk around and light up and get excited about all of the improvements and take ownership. They are proud,” said ELL teacher Rebecca Bing.
The School Year Begins
While the renovations were part of the excitement, it was the typical first-day buzz of nerves and new beginnings that had students talking, including “new classrooms, new friends, a new bus and a fast bus driver, and a new teacher,” said fifth-grader Scarlette Galbraith.
For sixth-grader Brittany Muniz, the fun of learning more math made her eager.
“I’m in advanced math,” she explained. “I like how it comes naturally to me. I like numbers.”
Principal Steven Reynolds said the improvements make for a great start to the new year, for which there’s “tons” to look forward to.
“There are a lot of positives, a lot of things we are optimistic about that we can continue and move forward into this year,” said Reynolds, who is beginning his second year as principal at WIS. “I am excited to continue a lot of the great things we did last year as a collective.”
Reynolds and the staff also have implemented routines, language and expectations that foster positive behavior and leadership. He said he now wants to see the ownership returning students have of what they learned last year.
“I’m looking forward to my fifth-graders being sixth-graders and them being leaders,” he said. “That is going to be telltale for us – us watching how our sixth-graders lead the building.”
In art teacher Shawn Dejonge’s classroom, the floor shined with new polish and soundproofing reduced echoes that had previously made instruction difficult in the large space. It’s now brightly lit and freshly painted. His first class of students would soon arrive and start creating their own sketch books.
‘It’s great to see the kids walk around and light up and get excited about all of the improvements and take ownership. They are proud.’
— Rebecca Bing, English-language learner teacher
“I always look forward to how we can get better,” he said. “I always look forward to seeing if we can take the momentum that we had in a previous year and roll it into the upcoming year and see if we can get it to a place where we all, students and staff, feel good at how we are and who we are.”
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