Memorial High School staff were allowed to begin moving and unpacking their stuff into the brand new classrooms Monday, just two-and-a-half weeks before the first day of school.
Science teacher Christopher Preston was anxious heading into the process.
“Back before COVID there were certain teachers that were part of a committee that talked with the architects and we’d sit through probably three or four hours’ worth of meetings discussing every single cabinet, where the sinks were going to be, what the tables would look like, which chairs would be here,” Preston said. “It’s different, but it’s close, so I’m really, really happy with it.”
Two of the features Preston is most excited about is the new technology in every classroom which includes an interactive, touch screen TV that can serve as a digital white board or display for presenting slides in place of a traditional projector. Teachers also have a wraparound, two-screen monitor that plugs into a chromebook.
He’s also more than satisfied with the numerous storage spaces strategically built into the room. There are enough cabinets that he even has empty ones left over.
“The fact that every single science teacher, every single lab, has their own storage room back there is huge,” Preston said. “I’ve unpacked 85 boxes, and you don’t see any of that, do you? The amount of storage that’s here is unreal. The room is a good size, it’s well set up, well thought out for the students.”
The extra space leaves Preston with the luxury of trying new experiments with his students that they may have not been able to complete before.
“We’ll probably set up grow lights and do some plant-growing experiments in that back storage room,” Preston said. “And goodness, having multiple sinks, I mean five small sinks and a large sink, when we’re doing clean up and everybody’s trying to clean up one or two sinks, before we had to stop 10-12 minutes early, maybe not anymore. We can get more stuff done.”
His only minor complaint is the lack of a ceiling fan, but otherwise Preston is extremely impressed with how everything worked out and looking forward to putting these new resources to use this year.
ESL and English teacher Debbie Pepper is also pleased with many of the features in her room and the layout overall.
“It’s easy to hang things up,” Pepper said. “Before we had the cinderblock walls and now we have the walls where just some sticky tack will work. I love the smart board. We got the training on it, and it’s phenomenal. The white boards – this whole wall is white board – and it’s magnetic which I haven’t had that before so I’m excited. I love that the desks are so versatile.”
Pepper’s only problem, contrary to Preston, is actually a lack of storage, but she believes she can find a way to work around that.
Both Pepper and Preston are also happy about the inclusion of many open seating areas throughout their hallway and the building for students to collaborate or work independently, while still being monitored from the classroom through the large windows.
Librarian Sydney Woolsey is feeling both excited and stressed about getting the library set up before school officially opens.
“I’m going to be up here every day from 7:30 in the morning until they kick me out at night,” Woolsey said. “I will be here every minute they’re open until it’s done.”
The library is at the very front of the building and one of the first things people will see when they enter, which is different from what Woolsey was used to at Rider High School where she worked previously.
“I’m excited that I might get more people willing to look at books that maybe hadn’t before because we’ll have a lot more traffic,” Woolsey said. “I’m just hoping it gets people excited to read something.”
She has the same amount of shelf space she did at Rider, but she didn’t use all of Rider’s shelves. However, she’ll have no problem filling all of Memorial’s shelves as she received a generous donation of 2,000 books from Burkburnett High School that they did not have room for.
“I’ll have too many that I’m going to have to give away,” Woolsey said. “I’m going to have a huge free book cart.”
Woolsey is also thrilled that because of the open layout, testing will never be held in the library and so it will never have to be closed.
While she had her doubts, Woolsey is feeling positive about this school year.
“It’s going to be weird, but I hope it’s a good weird,” Woolsey said. “I hope everyone has a great year. You have to just push past that fear, it’s going to be great.”
