BW Intermediate School opens its doors on Aug. 22

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Last Wednes­day (August 22) was the first day of school for stu­dents liv­ing in the Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict. But for dis­trict fifth and sixth grade stu­dents it was more than the start of a new school year; it was the inau­gural day of the district’s new Big Wal­nut Inter­me­di­ate School.

The plan to use the old mid­dle school build­ing on Baugh­man Street in Sun­bury as a grade five and six inter­me­di­ate school is sev­eral years old, but the plan had been put on the back burner while the dis­trict strug­gled to get a 7.5-mil emer­gency oper­at­ing levy approved by voters.

When the new 700-student Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School build­ing was built on Cheshire Road it was planned as a grade seven and eight facil­ity. Sixth grade stu­dents would use the inter­me­di­ate school; fifth graders would be moved out of the district’s three ele­men­tary build­ings, allow­ing room for growth at Big Wal­nut Ele­men­tary, Gen­eral Rose­crans Ele­men­tary and Hylen Soud­ers Elementary.

Last school year GRE, BWE and the Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School were oper­at­ing at or near capac­ity, and with dis­trict finances under con­trol the inter­me­di­ate school con­cept was res­ur­rected. At 9:10 a.m. last Wednes­day, life at the new Big Wal­nut Inter­me­di­ate School began.

Well, almost. Because of the district’s new three-tier bus­ing sys­tem, the first bus did not arrive at the inter­me­di­ate school until 9:13 a.m.

But that was not a prob­lem. Big Wal­nut folks are able to adapt and impro­vise. By 9:30 a.m. almost every­one was in place, classes were under­way, and build­ing prin­ci­pal Steve But­ler was able to stop hold­ing his breath.

“I’m really look­ing for­ward to the new school year and the edu­ca­tional oppor­tu­ni­ties pro­vided by this inter­me­di­ate school,” But­ler said. “I think the inter­me­di­ate school is the right thing to do. Hav­ing the fifth and sixth grades in this set­ting together with pro­grams designed around their age group is going to enhance their learn­ing. I know the teach­ers are espe­cially excited.”

But­ler said he also knows that stu­dents were excited about the new grade five and six building.

“The night before school opened I was at the school and two girls who would be attend­ing the inter­me­di­ate school were at a nearby sport­ing event, and I over­heard them talk­ing to each other,” But­ler said. “One of the girls told her friend that she wouldn’t be able to sleep that night; that com­ing to the new inter­me­di­ate school was just like Christmas.”

Dis­trict super­in­ten­dent Steve Mazzi, who has a new office in a wing of the inter­me­di­ate school, said he was also excited about the entire grade five and six build­ing, a con­cept that he endorsed from the ear­li­est days of plan­ning the new mid­dle school.

“This is going to be a great oppor­tu­nity for stu­dents to move from the ele­men­tary schools to the mid­dle school, and the teach­ers here are so keen on the under­stand­ing of both the ele­men­tary child and the mid­dle school child,” Mazzi said. “For me, it’s great to step out of my office and right into a build­ing with students.”

Posted by Gary Henery on Aug 29 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.