Su Valley students embrace new school

SUNSHINE — To hear the principal tell it, just about everyone at Su Valley Jr./Sr. High School is elated to be there these days.

And while it may be surprising to hear students are happy to be at school, in Su Valley’s case, it’s to be expected. A brand-new building is a huge step up from portable classrooms.

Ever since the school burned down in June 2007, classes have been held in a cluster of portable classrooms on the Su Valley Senior Center’s property across the highway from the school site. But after winter break, the students and their teachers got to say goodbye to those cramped trailers and start off the New Year in swanky new digs.

“The teachers are just as excited as they can be,” principal Rob Picou said Friday. “Everyone’s walking around with a big smile.”

He said there wasn’t a whole lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding the first day in the new building. Staff decided it was best to wait a few days before celebrating. The plan is to hold a party on Jan. 17. The borough is also planning a more formal dedication ceremony Tuesday.

“We basically just wanted to try to get the kids into the building and get them into classrooms and establish some routines,” Picou said. “We felt that it was important to get the kids back into the process of learning.”

And while it’s never a good thing to have to spend an entire school year learning in temporary facilities, perhaps there’s a silver lining.

Picou said the new building is a big improvement over the old one which, though it was valued at $13.23 million and undergoing a $5.5 million roof replacement at the time, it was 34 years old when it burned.

“The whole building, I guess you could say, is bigger and better,” Picou said.

There’s new technology in the classrooms — projectors and the like. The shop classroom has more welding stalls. The gym is bigger and fancier than it used to be. And it has an open design with lots of light coming in. And while the architecture of the place might seem trivial, it does, Picou said, help the school achieve its goals.

“There’s a lot of research been done on how physical space actually impacts student learning,” Picou said. “I see in the first week an increased attention and motivation to achievement. Just being in a new school makes them more excited to want to be here and learn.”

Picou said he’s in his second year as principal. Which means he started his tenure working from the portable classrooms.

But while classes were across the highway, he said some things, like sports practices, were held next to the construction site on the school’s old sports field behind the school. While it may seem a little iffy to have children playing soccer next to an active construction site, Picou said the contractor made it work.

“The contractor just added another road so we could have access to the field back there,” Picou said. “I have to say even though we were over in the portables the contractor over here he just accommodated everything we needed.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.