Ask students about what is best about the new Sam Adams Elementary School building and it might take them a while to come up with only one thing.
Khan Ratsamy, a sixth-grader, summed it pretty nicely.
“Everything about the building,” he said. “The upstairs, everything is new.”
The newly renovated building indeed has two levels, plenty big enough for the approximately 700 students in kindergarten through sixth grade who attend.
A $16 million bond also funded two new wings — one for kindergarten and first grade classrooms and another two-story wing for second through sixth grade rooms. Thirty-one new rooms have been added to the building.
But often students appreciate the simpler things.
Sixth-grader Tim Pinch likes the new lockers the best.
“The locks on the lockers,” Pinch said. “They have combinations.”
Melanie Greenleaf also said she appreciates the new lockers and “the bigger rooms” and new gymnasium.
“I’m really looking forward to gym class,” she said.
Kaleb Anderson said the best part of the new building is “exploring the upstairs and downstairs.”
Bridget Griffioen, a third grade teacher at Sam Adams, said the students have been in awe of “the newness of everything.”
“It’s great for them to know that this is all for them. That’s a big deal,” Griffioen said.