New floors have students skipping to class; Winter break ended for schools Monday, today
Posted on Tuesday, January 6, 2009
BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times Wayne Woolsey talks to kindergartners in Brooks Anne Courtway's and Jessica Byram's class Monday during Butterfield Elementary School's first day of classes in its new building. Woolsey talked to students about his invention called Magic Dust, which glows in the dark.
As they walked through their newly tiled hallways Monday afternoon, some Butterfield Trail Elementary School students could be seen attempting to skip from one colored tile to another.
"I knew this would happen," Principal Joey Folsom said. "The patterns have given them something to jump on."
The tile hallways in the new addition are mostly gray with some yellow and red tiles. Previously, the floor was a single-color carpet.
The students held their first day of school in the 23,000-square-foot new addition Monday, which was the start of school in Fayetteville for the 2009 spring semester. The addition was built onto the front of the school's original brown brick building.
The brown brick building is undergoing a complete interior remodel during the 2009 semester, and the project is expected to be finished in the summer.
Teachers and staff moved many items from the older portion of the school into the addition during winter break, but not every task had been completed by Monday.
"We're still moving some stuff," Folsom said.
Also, some equipment, including a copier, was being stored in the hallways until a more permanent place could be found, Folsom said.
There are some adjustments being made because of the construction. Walking around the side of the school to the playground and library, which is set up in a temporary trailer on the northeast side of the building, takes longer, Folsom said.
The old gym was converted into a cafeteria, since the eating facilities are in part of the building being remodeled. A new gym was built south of the new addition and was already being used Monday by physical education classes.
The school even held a fire drill in the morning on the first day back so people could familiarize themselves with the new exits, Folsom said.
The inside of the school's new, round entrance features replicas of historic pictures from the location's days along the historic Butterfield Stagecoach Trail.
"These are prints of the Butterfield Stage," Folsom said.
The new entrance was designed to resemble a wagon wheel as an homage to the Butterfield Stagecoach. The new addition uses mostly yellow and red for wall colors, which were the colors of choice for the historic stagecoaches.
Monday was the first day of school in Fayetteville for all schools except Happy Hollow and Asbell elementary schools. Those schools follow a special calendar and start school today.
Elkins and Springdale schools also start classes today.
Other county school districts that started school Monday included Farmington, Greenland, Prairie Grove and Lincoln.
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