A New Edmunds Opens to Serve Students, Community
Edmunds students and teachers prepare to cut the ribbon and formally open their new school.
On August 12, a fittingly warm, shiny day, the ribbon was cut at the brand spanking new Edmunds Elementary School, less than 15 months after groundbreaking. There were speeches and banging drums. People were clapping and smiling. Even the grass is new. They’re still laying the sod. So is the school song. The whole place has that new car smell about it. When the doors flung open and the kids streamed in the place was energized. The switch flipped on a new sun.
The red-bricked structure rose like a fast-growing child just north of the old building, located on the edge of downtown Des Moines in the historic Sherman Hills neighborhood. The community couldn’t wait for it to be finished. Not any longer.
Construction was completed right on schedule allowing new principal Jaynette Rittman and her staff the time they needed to settle in and gear up for Opening Day on August 14. The school had a construction budget of $10.25 million and is the first new school built in Des Moines since George Washington Carver Community School opened in 2007.
The original Edmunds Elementary was built in 1972. The open building concept was in vogue in that era but has since fallen out of favor and now only a handful of school buildings that feature it remain in the United States.
“Multipurpose spaces are an integral element of the building,” explained Bill Good, the district’s Chief Operations Officer. “Natural lighting is abundant and this school will be both technology-rich and energy efficient. It’s a smarter, safer, more focused environment for teaching and learning,” he added.
Once a magnet school for fine arts, Edmunds now aspires to be a more traditional neighborhood school serving the Sherman Hills, Oakridge and Drake Park communities.
2012-13 enrollment at Edmunds was 287. When this year’s official figure is tallied it will be substantially more. The total square footage of the new Edmunds nearly doubles the old building and the design of the interior space incorporates many features suggested and requested by Edmunds teachers. Classrooms for the lower grades adjoin and each includes its own sink and restroom to reduce interruptions to absolute minimums. Teachers will be equipped with infrared mics to ensure that everyone hears them.
“We are extremely excited to open our doors to students, parents and the community,” enthused Rittman on the eve of the ceremony. “The building is remarkable! Everyone is going to be amazed by the colors, clouds, and the furniture which was designed with students as the top priority. The building is providing our community with a new beginning, which is a wonderful opportunity. We are able to bring back our neighborhood students.”
Guiding visitors on tours Good couldn’t help smiling as he pointed out features like the high ceilings in the library and the expansive views of downtown. Higher ceilings and better outlooks are what the new Edmunds is all about, a beautiful state-of-the-art building that took as long to carefully plan and design as it did to actually build.
“This project will cost about $14 million (paid for by statewide penny revenues) from drawing board to the first day of school here,” Good said. “And it’s money very well-spent on an important area in the core of our community.”
That was plain to see at the ribbon-cutting/open house on August 12. Two days later all those oohs and ahhs had subsided into the steady hum of starry-eyed kids whose lives now orbit this sunny place.
