Several hundred people braved cool, windy weather around lunchtime Monday for a moment many in the Eastvalley Elementary School community have been anticipating for years:
The official christening of a new campus that not only replaces the obsolete 63-year-old facility on Lower Roswell Road, but raises a new bar for an elementary school.
The nearly 150,000-square-foot building across from Wheeler High School on Holt Road has two stories and more than double the number of classrooms—28 to 63.
“And all under one roof,” noted Eastvalley principal Dr. Whitney Spooner, as the crowd cheered, recalling the many aging portable classrooms that have handled massive overcrowding at Eastvalley for several years.
The gym is four times larger, with six basketball goals, the learning commons includes “a top of the line recording studio” as well as a courtyard with two playscapes and is encircled by a pedestrian track.
Spooner’s teachers applauded wildly when she noted that staff restrooms have gone from three in the old building to 14.
At a cost of nearly $37 million, Eastvalley opened to students and staff two weeks ago after the fall break, after supply chain and construction delays pushed the move from the start of the current school year.
Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the delayed opening is “bittersweet—but now it is more sweet than bitter” as the doors have formally opened.
Monday was chosen for the celebration because it was an asynrchronous learning day in the district for staff development reasons.
The Eastvalley Chorus sang the national anthem and many Eastvalley students and their families turned out to tour the new building.
“This is what SPLOST is allowing us to do,” Ragsdale said, referring to the Cobb Education special-purpose local-option sales tax that funds school construction and maintenance projects.
“Y’all deserve the best and this is truly the best.”
Related:
- Banks still considering Cobb school board re-election bid
- Cobb schools teacher of the year honored at Marietta Square
- Wheeler HS tops Cobb 2023 ACT scores
- Lassiter leads Cobb 2023 graduation rates
- Second-year Wheeler HS band director dies
- Timber Ridge ES custodian ‘Mr. Jimmy’ dies
- Walton, Wheeler, Lassiter lead 2023 Cobb SAT scores
- National Merit Scholarship semifinalists named for 2024
- Ragsdale: ‘Sexualization of children can never be defended’
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Students began
