Open house at a new school
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on August 20, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Gena Edwards signs in outside of her son Josh's seventh grade homeroom during open house at Grantham Middle School Wednesday night. Josh is excited about the new school, but is more excited about being able to play team sports with his classmates for the first time this year.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Parents and students meander throughout the media center at Grantham Middle School Wednesday night during open house. The newly constructed school is decorated with bright, bold colors that identify the hallway, classrooms and key areas.
Delores and Manfred Hood strolled through the hallways of Grantham Middle School Wednesday evening, checking out classrooms and navigating around hundreds of others attending open house.
But there was something missing from the mix -- they have no children who will attend the school.
"All our grandkids have graduated from college," the couple said. In fact, they have four children, six grandchildren, about 12 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
They simply "wanted to see it," they said of the brand spanking new school situated in the community their family has occupied since 1912.
Hood is 88, his wife 86. And the new facility has been a long time coming, they said.
"We have been fighting for it for years," Hood said. "We wanted to keep the old school where it was and build a new school, so (they) built it just like we wanted."
"And we hope we're still around when they build a new high school," his wife said.
Open house events for middle and high schools around the county took place Wednesday night, with two new middle schools opening on Monday, in the Grantham and Spring Creek communities.
Students and teachers at both schools have spent years doubled up with other grades -- Grantham had the only K-8 school in the county while Spring Creek had the only grades 6-12 school.
But for those in Grantham, the occasion went beyond a place for students and teachers. It represents their community and its sense of family.
Judy Sasser and her husband, Carlton Sasser, admired the new construction. Mrs. Sasser and her daughter, Dawn Cox, had attended the original Grantham School.
"It just makes me proud," Mrs. Sasser said. "I never thought it would happen. For years and years, they have been trying to get it done.
"We just wanted to come out and see how pretty it was."
Their "last grand-young'un," Robert Cox, will be a sixth-grader at the school, Sasser said.
"Robert will be our last hope for (attending) this school, so that's why we were so excited," Mrs. Sasser said. "We would be excited no matter what but are glad the community will benefit (from this)."
Kelly Hughes, like her parents and grandparents before her, had attended Grantham from kindergarten through ninth grade -- she was in the last ninth-grade class before Southern Wayne switched to having grades 9-12.
"My children are now going to Grantham," said the PTA treasurer. One will be in third grade, while 10-year-old Mckalyn will be in fifth grade at the middle school.
"She can't be more excited. She's getting a locker," Mrs. Hughes said. "The build-up has been so big. We have been working for it for so long.
"It does seem unreal. It doesn't seem like this building belongs in Grantham -- it almost looks like a movie set!"
Eighth-grader Allie Gurley had envisioned when her younger brother, Shane, started kindergarten, she would get to walk him to class.
Now that the new school has been completed, she will instead be finding her own way around the halls. The trade-off is a beautiful building.
"I love it, love it, love it," she said after visiting some of her classes. "I'm an athlete and I'm in chorus so I especially love the auditorium and the gym."
Her mother, Sheila Gurley, was equally impressed, recalling the many events held in a hot gymnasium.
"Now we won't be fanning through the whole program," she said with a laugh. "I feel like we have stepped into a new century or something."
Lori Benning, in her first year as media coordinator, said she was enjoying the reactions of those coming to open house, like the one she overheard say, "'Wow, I can't believe we have a school like this in Wayne County!'"
Alex Wingate, a retired principal whose son and daughter-in-law, Andy and Sonya Wingate, a P.E. teacher and teacher assistant at the new school, respectively, showed up to see where his grandson, Thomas, will be in seventh grade.
"It's absolutely fabulous," he said. "The community's got to be extremely pleased. Wayne County needs to be pleased. In Spring Creek and Grantham, it's really a plus."
Cory Gregory volunteers at the school where her son, Lukas Gregory, is a student.
"I like it. It's pretty big," Lukas said. "I like how it's designed and stuff."
Teachers also appreciated their new surroundings.
Elizabeth McDaniel, an eighth-grade science teacher who has been at Grantham for the past four years, said she only wished a camera could be positioned at the entrance to capture all the expressions of people's faces as they arrived at open house.
"It's awesome, especially for this community, the pride in this community," she said. "It was a community effort and now the community is going to benefit from it."
She also enjoyed showing students the impressive new science lab -- which includes exhaust fans, showers and eye wash stations, a prep room to store chemicals and six student sinks.
"I have never had a setup like this," she said. "To be able to do a science lab in a safe environment, there were certain labs I would never do in an older building."
Renee Sparks, a special education teacher at the school for 16 years, said the addition to the community is "huge."
"It was kind of bittersweet (to split up the school)," she said. "I think it's going to offer our middle school students a bigger look toward high school and the facilities are fabulous."