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Asking 5-year-old Skyler Murphy of Hamlin what she thinks of her new school earns a shy, one-word reply, “Good.”
Opening up at her mom’s gentle questioning, Skyler shares, “I liked the lunch room and the art room.”
“What other room was your very favorite?” asks Joetta Murphy, her mom.
That would be the library, with its pastel colors and window seats, a favorite amongst many students and parents touring the new EverGreen Elementary School in Lake Ariel.
Located on the Easton Turnpike, just off Route 191, the two-story, 104,000 square foot building is set to open on Wednesday, Aug. 31st for the first day of school.
Holding an open house all this week, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily (until 8 p.m. on Wednesday), the Western Wayne School District invites the entire community to take a peak at the eco-friendly school.
Dressed in a bright red, Elmo shirt, four-year-old Abigail McCabe was very interested in her new school. Accompanied by her parents, Renee and John McCabe of Hamlin, Abigail seemed anxious to check out the playground.
Asked what she’ll enjoy most about the school, Mrs. McCabe said, “Probably everything.”
“It’s so big and beautiful and new. Classrooms are sizable, that’s the most exciting thing for me. So, for learning, that’s what I look at,” said Asst. Superintendent, Dr. Clayton LaCoe.
“And I also look at the building itself and all of the environmental components of it as a learning tool,” he said. “So, it’s not just the course work that they do, but it’s the building, and that’s exciting.”
Parents were very interested to learn more about the rooftop garden and the on-property greenhouse.
“The green house is the wastewater treatment facility,” he said. “That’s going to be a living, breathing classroom greenhouse.”
LaCoe says about half of the wastewater that gets treated will be utilized for flushing toilets.
Planted with about 6,000 perennials, the rooftop garden “is designed to take the runoff from the roof and put into a bio-retention, to take that water so it doesn’t get wasted,” LaCoe said. That too, is an outdoor classroom.
Greeting people at the door, Early Intervention Supervisor Tanya Carrelle said they had a steady flow of parents and students on Monday.
Saying they’d received “very positive comments from everybody,” Carrelle said, “Everybody’s very impressed.”
Asking 5-year-old Skyler Murphy of Hamlin what she thinks of her new school earns a shy, one-word reply, “Good.”
Opening up at her mom’s gentle questioning, Skyler shares, “I liked the lunch room and the art room.”
“What other room was your very favorite?” asks Joetta Murphy, her mom.
That would be the library, with its pastel colors and window seats, a favorite amongst many students and parents touring the new EverGreen Elementary School in Lake Ariel.
Located on the Easton Turnpike, just off Route 191, the two-story, 104,000 square foot building is set to open on Wednesday, Aug. 31st for the first day of school.
Holding an open house all this week, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily (until 8 p.m. on Wednesday), the Western Wayne School District invites the entire community to take a peak at the eco-friendly school.
Dressed in a bright red, Elmo shirt, four-year-old Abigail McCabe was very interested in her new school. Accompanied by her parents, Renee and John McCabe of Hamlin, Abigail seemed anxious to check out the playground.
Asked what she’ll enjoy most about the school, Mrs. McCabe said, “Probably everything.”
“It’s so big and beautiful and new. Classrooms are sizable, that’s the most exciting thing for me. So, for learning, that’s what I look at,” said Asst. Superintendent, Dr. Clayton LaCoe.
“And I also look at the building itself and all of the environmental components of it as a learning tool,” he said. “So, it’s not just the course work that they do, but it’s the building, and that’s exciting.”
Parents were very interested to learn more about the rooftop garden and the on-property greenhouse.
“The green house is the wastewater treatment facility,” he said. “That’s going to be a living, breathing classroom greenhouse.”
LaCoe says about half of the wastewater that gets treated will be utilized for flushing toilets.
Planted with about 6,000 perennials, the rooftop garden “is designed to take the runoff from the roof and put into a bio-retention, to take that water so it doesn’t get wasted,” LaCoe said. That too, is an outdoor classroom.
Greeting people at the door, Early Intervention Supervisor Tanya Carrelle said they had a steady flow of parents and students on Monday.
Saying they’d received “very positive comments from everybody,” Carrelle said, “Everybody’s very impressed.”
Carrelle said some parents had questioned safety.
Evergreen Elementary Principal Ellen Faliskie said it’s a very secure school.
“It’s state-of-the-art. All doors are locked,” Faliskie said.
“There are cameras throughout the hallways of the building. We can view what’s happening throughout the hallways on monitors,” the principal said. Surveillance cameras are also positioned outside the school as well.
“We can go into our computers and check the building at all times,” she said.
Asked her personal opinion of the school, Faliskie said, “It’s breathtaking. It’s just such a wonderful building for a lot of reasons. First - security. Second, it’s alive ... Lights go on when you walk into a room; they go out when you go out of the room. Same thing with the heating system.
“It’s a complete learning center. The children can learn in every area of this building, whether it be the greenhouse, the rooftop garden, the classroom, the library,” she said.
“There’s so much that can be learned here. Our high school can use this, our community can use this, local colleges can use this center. Mr. Falonk’s dream, and our dream in the district, was to make this a place, a community center where people will come,” Faliskie said.
The principal said she can’t wait to see the student’s faces at the beginning of the school year when they settle into their new classrooms and new school.
“That’s what I want to see the first day is the kids. Because this is like Oprah’s ‘Aha moment.’ This is it,” Faliskie said.
