Cinderella is finally at the ball — Cinderella being more than 900 middle-schoolers, and the ball being a $19.1 million state-of-the-art school.
Hundreds of students flooded into the 154,679-square-foot building, from the front door and from the ends of halls branching out from a central rotunda.
As students navigated the halls with maps, school faculty and central office volunteers pointed them to class, to the cafeteria for breakfast or to the band hall to drop off their instruments.
Many of the students already had already toured the building and were excited about their first day of class in the new school.
“It”s really big and nice,” Breanna Weston, an eighth-grader, said, as she waited for the first bell to ring. She got to school at about 7:20 this morning.
The school bell, a digital tone, rang at about 7:45.
Seventh-graders Brandon Williams, Zephon Balthazar and Avery Williams also got to school early this morning.
“I like it,” Brandon said of the school.
“I”m sleeping in the library,” added Avery, a football player. He is excited to have his own locker in the school”s weight room.
At Lee Middle School, with only 80 lockers, there weren”t enough for 75 seventh-grade and 65 eighth-grade athletes to lock up their gear and personal items.
Breanna, Brandon and Zephon, all basketball players, are most excited about the new gym.
“I think it”s pretty cool,” sixth-grader Destinee Howard said of the school. “Once you walk into the classrooms, it just pops into your head, ”This is amazing.””
Each classroom features modular carpet, made from 100 percent recycled materials, and a Promethean board, with wireless Internet and cable capabilities. Desks are versatile, designed to fit together in large circles or semicircles and in full or half hexagons, catering to a variety of classroom activities. They also feature large work space and an unattached seat.
Faculty and staff members worked Tuesday, some until 8 and 9 p.m., getting the school ready to welcome students today.
“We have really worked hard to make sure there was a smooth transition,” said Cindy Wamble, school principal.
Despite working all day Tuesday, Wamble said the excitement of today has kept her energy level up.
“As much as I worked, I was not tired. I was ready for the kids to come in,” Wamble said. “That”s what it”s all about. … This building was built specifically for them.”
Traffic, from school buses and personal vehicles on campus, flowed smoothly this morning, under the direction of campus security and district employees.
Columbus Municipal School District Superintendent Dr. Del Phillips, along with City Engineer Kevin Stafford and representatives from Waters Truck and Tractor, the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol and the Mississippi Department of Transportation watched the flow of traffic on Highway 45 North and Highway 373, where new traffic lights have been installed. Columbus and Lowndes County law enforcement also helped with the effort.
“We had a little issue with where you pull up to get a left-bound green arrow. The window of time that you have to sit there is too long,” Phillips said, noting this was the only problem they saw as school drop-off began this morning. “We”re hoping to get that fixed this afternoon.”
The new lights have been running for the past several weeks.
The new Columbus Middle School, built at 175 Highway 373 with funds from a $22 million bond issue, merges faculty and staff of about 98 and more than 950 students in grades six, seven and eight, from Lee Middle and Hunt Intermediate schools.
Wamble, formerly principal at Lee, is principal of the new middle school.
Assistant principals are responsible for each grade — Kimberly Wright, sixth grade; Freda Dismukes, seventh grade; and Levi Robinson, eighth grade.
Tamela Barr, formerly principal of Hunt, is now the district”s testing coordinator.
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