By JENNIFER NGUYEN
Journalism Club Editor
There
has been much talk about the rebuilding of the new East Middle School and when
and where it will happen. But fear
no more fellow students, the answers to all your questions have been answered;
well, almost all of them.
The
new East Middle School campus, or as I like to call it, EMS 2.0, will be built
on former grounds and is being currently designed by Holks Miller
Architects. The school is
estimated at a cost of about 23.3 million dollars, holding approximately a
student capacity of 750. As far as
what the school will look like, the designs are in working progress, so the
"look" changes constantly.
But, recently, information has been revealed to the Journalism Club, and
what we know, we will tell.
The
school is to be a two story building (complete with an elevator) that is mainly
divided into three "houses."
One house will be assigned to the sixth grade, one to the seventh grade,
and one to the eighth grade. Each
house will contain a "living room," an area in the center of the
house that is designated for class activities, house meetings, and other events
that might occur. Each house will
be a separate team in which the students are divided into according to grade. This arrangement will make things more
flexible so that students will have the same classes and teachers as
required. Another new thing is
that the walls of the houses aren't just any ordinary walls; they are going to
be made out of glass! And, of
course, each house will contain bathrooms and lockers available for use.
The
new middle school will also include a hallway made just for student
electives. This hallway will be
known as the "Fine Arts" hallway and will hold special rooms for the
different elective classes. The
same athletic area and equipment will be provided, such as the gym, weight
room, wrestling room, football field, and soccer goals with a field. Plans for a laptop counter lining the
outer hallways of the school have also been discussed.
As
of Friday, January 6, 2012, the R-8 Board of Education voted to allow plans for
the East Middle School and the Duquesne and Duenweg Elementary Schools to be
connected on the same campus. Even
though the schools will be joined, they will still be considered separate
schools, although both schools will share the same auditorium and kitchen. This is because the property for the
middle school has increased almost twice as much. The elementary school's cost is about 12.7 million dollars,
holding a student capacity of 450.
The school's name is yet to be discovered, and the current school will
be used in the years ahead for a future growth and early childhood center.
What
will kids like the most about the new school? When asked this question, Mr. Jason Weaver, EMS's assistant
principal, replied saying that there are many things to like about the new
school, but one is that there is a lot friendlier, non-traditional space. It will be very unique, special, and
"fun to hang out" in.
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