Students greeted by vibrant changes to EWMS

By: 
Kate Wehlann, Staff Writer

School bathrooms aren’t typically places people want to spend much time, but fifth and sixth graders at East Washington Middle School may be pleasantly surprised at the changes they found there on their first day of school Wednesday. And the bathrooms are just the start of it.

Last year, staff members and volunteers worked hard to transform the school lobby into the entryway of a castle, painting each brick of the wall by hand, including a fake fireplace and framed rules of the Musketeer Creed, along with banners from each of the school’s houses. The work continued elsewhere in the school this summer and two instructional assistants, Jennifer Rodriguez and Whitney Smith, asked if they could tackle the fifth- and sixth-grade bathrooms.

Where there once were plain walls and stall doors are now bubbles and mermaid tails or turtle shells and a leaping plumber straight out of a video game.

“I don’t even know how many hours they’ve put in, but they look amazing!” said Principal Amber King.

During registration, students tried to take peeks at the changes to the school library, which has gotten quite the facelift.

Keeping with the theme of the lobby, the walls have been painted to look like castle walls, with bookish murals lining the walls above the shelves.

“There’s six shades of grays and browns on every brick,” said King, who was part of the team that painted each brick by hand. “I can list the paint shades by name.”

The walls aren’t the only change. Social studies teacher and rock band advisor Troy Smith is also a carpenter. He built two reading towers with four reading nooks in each for students to use when they need to get even further away and enjoy their books. The school received a flexible seating grant that paid for exercise balls with wheeled bases for the computer banks and there’s more castle-like furniture scattered throughout the room. There’s even a faux bearskin rug.

“Kids have told me now that they’ve seen it, they’ll start reading,” said King, laughing.

“I think the library is really cool,” said Kira Balentine, who’s entering eighth grade this year. “I think it will make people want to read. I feel like having it on the news will bring more people to the school.”

Then there’s the courtyard, now referred to as the house commons, accessible by, among other entrances, the library.

“The courtyard has been there for a long time, but never utilized,” said King. “This is the first time it’s been put to use. It was very barren with lots of concrete. It looked kind of like a prison yard. We wanted to get lots of color out there.”

And color now fills the space. Murals cover most of the walls, with more walls receiving similar artwork. Picnic tables and benches painted vibrant colors are scattered throughout the commons, with a bench for each school house lining the walls under their house murals. In the middle is an outdoor classroom with seating for 30, where teachers can take students for fresh air while they teach, hold debates, skits and other events, along with a concert venue for the school’s rock band, 2 Infinity. 

“All the work has been voluntary and all paid for through grants and donations,” said King.

PVE in Sellersburg is making metal plates that will go on each of the house benches and grafitti artist Kyle McIntosh donated his time and artistic skills to painting more than a dozen murals in the commons, putting in four nearly-12-hour days. Meijer and Walmart donated the paint he used and the PTO is currently fundraising to cover the cost of sun shades that will stretch across parts of the commons.

The seven large sunshades have been installed thanks to Chris King Construction, who provided the time, labor and hardware for the installation.

“Without help from PVE, Chris King, Meijer and Walmart, the PTO, family staff and other volunteers, I don’t know how this could have gotten done,” said Amber King. I was excited about this, a little nervous, but so many people have stepped up to help make this happen. They’ve put in well over 1,000 volunteer hours this summer. Probably closer to 2,000.”

She said the varsity basketball team helped with the commons and teachers, instructional assistants, family members, community members and more have come together to make the dream a reality. 

Still, King said students probably won’t be able to use the commons until a few weeks or so.

“Not everything met fire code, so we’re working to make sure every piece of this meets that before we let students use it,” said King. “We’ve installed new doors and we still need to get more things done.”

Madeline Lewellen, eighth grade, said she’ll be spending more time in the renovated places. Her friend, Ava Sowder said she thinks the changes are “really awesome!”

“I think it will make the school more exciting and fun,” she said. “I think we’re more energetic about coming to school.”

Category:

Please Login for Premium Content

Site Login Help

For current subscribers to The Salem Leader and The Salem Democrat, you can login to the site using the following information:

Username: Please use your full email address associated with your account
Password: Please use your last name. Passwords are case sensitive, so please capitalize your last name (eg: Smith)