Kentwood — Students arrived for the first day of school today to the brand new Hamilton Elementary, where classrooms are bright and spacious, the gym shines with paint and polish and the playground awaits active preschool through fifth-graders.
The district’s 11th elementary school at 3303 Breton Road SE opened after more than a year of construction, bringing a neighborhood school to the area. The $20 million project involved extensive renovation to the former Hamilton Early Childhood Center and was funded by a bond passed in 2021.
“It’s amazing,” said second-grader Jakayla Coleman, who took in her new surroundings with mom Britany Thomas and other family members during a tour of the school last week. “I’m excited to learn, do math and read books and have fun.”
About 350 students are attending young fives through fifth grade at Hamilton. The school also includes eight early childhood classrooms, which will be staffed in partnership with Kent ISD and the Great Start Readiness Program.
It is a full-circle moment, said Superintendent Kevin Polston. The building housed the original Hamilton Elementary, which closed during the Great Recession in 2009. The goal was always to reopen the school, and now is the time thanks to growing enrollment, he said. The district added more than 200 students last school year, bringing its total enrollment to 9,639 students.
Polston said as part of the district’s strategic planning process, which began in 2022, administrators looked at data around where students resided. About 375 students in the area of Hamilton didn’t live within one-and-a-half miles of their elementary school. Reopening the school changes that.
“Our goal was to ensure there was a neighborhood school for each and every one of our students,” Polston said.
In preparation, the district completed an extensive redistricting plan. As a result, about one in four students were assigned to a different school than they attended last school, including those who will be attending Hamilton.
The district worked to ensure all elementary schools were similarly sized and took into account creating and maintaining neighborhood schools, maintaining diversity in buildings and considering population growth.
Fifth-grade teacher Sarah Butler said it’s an exciting new start.
“I feel like we have been building for this beautiful community and to see it come alive and actually have the community here is such a gift and is really energizing. I’m pumped for the year!” she said.
A Chance to Make it Their Own
Hamilton Principal Ahnna Sisco spent the past year planning the school, from the staff to the media center to the playground equipment — “all those intentional decisions that we really wanted to make sure were made with our families in mind.”
Hamilton will be the district’s first International Baccalaureate School, with staff training already underway to implement the rigorous curriculum. The school is currently in the first of three years of the program’s candidacy phase to become a certified IB school, Sisco said.
The Geneva, Switzerland-based IB program focuses on developing intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world. According to its website, as of October 2024, more than 8,000 programs were being offered across 5,900 schools in more than 160 countries.
Young fives teacher Alexis Quebbeman said she looks forward to laying the groundwork and setting expectations on “this is how we do school” with the youngest learners.
“I’m excited about a fresh slate,” Quebbeman said. “Something our principal is just really all about is making sure that every student feels like they belong here. That is something that I as an educator, and just as a human being, think is really important, especially in today’s society.”
District media specialist and mom Meredith Hyde toured the building last week with her two sons, who are starting first and second grade at Hamilton. She said she looks forward to being part of a new school and for the IB opportunity.
“We get to build something new that doesn’t necessarily exist anywhere else in the district. We get to lay that foundation,” she said.
Now, however, Sisco is ready for launch.
“The teachers will be able to open their classroom doors and invite and greet all of the kids. I’ve been thinking about the first day for such a long time and I’m so glad it’s here.”
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