News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
White County’s new Findlay Elementary School officially opens January 6th.
Director of White County Schools Kurt Dronebarger said this facility will help more than just the elementary students.
“It really has built kinda three buildings for one for us,” Dronebarger said. “We get a brand new state of the art elementary school that we’re very proud of, we get to move our central office to the old school where we’ll have room to spread out, and then also we’ll be able to bring folks that are in nooks and crannies in all the other schools and we can pull them into a centralized location. And so we’re really proud of that.”
The school currently has almost 400 students enrolled. The new center has a 650 student capacity, giving plenty of room to grow.
Findlay Elementary doesn’t plan to waste time or space. Dronebarger said they have big plans for the spaces they have.
“Some of our CDC Special Ed. population we’re going to bring to Findlay; behavior class we’re going to bring to Findlay that’s located in another school that’s going to free up space and some personnel there; our ESL teachers are going to have an office in this building; and one of our behavior specialists will have an office. We’re already getting to utilize this new space and centralized as it’s here in the city.”
The school system broke ground on the $10 million building April 2018. Dronebarger said construction has taken longer than expected, but he’s proud of what has been accomplished.
“I’m proud of this school, I think it’s going to serve the city and the students here and the county of MYK schools very well. I hope they’ll be proud of what we’ve done here with tax dollars. We’ve really tried to build a really beautiful yet functional school that’s going to serve the students here for a long long time.”
The school’s teachers are also excited about the new amenity. Librarian and media coordinator Jill Thompson said the new library will give the children plenty of opportunities for learning.
“It has lots more room, it has more opportunities for multiple classes to access the library and its resources. It also has a reading storytelling theater. Nobody else has a storytelling theater like we have, this is new state of the art that we have in our county.”
The library also has additional work spaces for STEM and MakerSpace, and has newer technology, including promethean boards, to bring learning to life for the students.
