65 Years Young: Moore is Ready to Re-Open as a “New” School
Students, parents and neighbors got a sneak peek of Moore Elementary School as it prepares to re-open on August 26.
My, my, look at little Sandi Paskins. It seems like just yesterday she reported to room #1250 at Moore Elementary School for her first day of kindergarten at a brand spanking new school. But it was 65 years ago.
Yesterday Paskins, now Sandi Paskins Hagel, was one of the first to take a sneak peek at renewed and improved Moore which is about to reopen next week as the finishing touches are put on an extreme makeover that upgrades the building to state of the art if not technically brand new. Principal Beth Sloan welcomed the community inside to check out the work in progress. She escorted curious parents and students and neighbors around the building like a proud parent and smiled at one-word reviews like “wow” and “unbelievable.”
The place has a new car smell and feel to it. In some areas there are still wet paint signs hanging. The floors are either polished or sport just-laid carpet. Outside in the courtyard even the grass is new. Freshly laid sod will make good use of Tuesday’s rains. The nets hanging from the hoops in the newly constructed gymnasium look stiff as new jeans. There are boxes of everything everywhere. But the final push is in high gear. All the place lacks is an excited batch of kids to break it in and they are coming – soon. A few were already on hand in hard hats to welcome yesterday’s steady stream of excited visitors. So after Monday’s open house it’s back to work for Sloan and her staff and the construction crews.
Moore first opened in 1950 at the cutting edge of the post-WWII building and baby booms. But by 2007 enrollment trends were on the decline in the northwest part of the city. Moore was closed and later repurposed to serve as the home of Scavo Alternative High School. But Scavo now has new quarters at Central Campus so Moore is about to get back into its original business as a neighborhood elementary school thanks in part to an influx of immigrant families in that sector of the district. It will also seek certification as an International Baccalaureate curriculum provider. Moore will adopt the IB Primary Years Programme and complete a northwest IB feeder pattern in conjunction with Meredith Middle School and Hoover High School.
But first the scramble is on to finish a $6.6 million renovation project that includes installation of a new underground geothermal heating and cooling system, technology infrastructure, security systems, student drop-offs, a playground, and more.
Sandi Paskins Hagel brought along a photo of her that appeared in the Des Moines Register when she stood 32” tall and started school at Moore. Since then she grew up to send all three of her own children to school there. Like most of the visitors who’ve been regularly driving by the beehive of activity in recent months she was pleased by what she saw when she finally got to come inside for a closer look.
“I think it’s just wonderful that Moore is coming back,” she said. “It looks beautiful and all of the improvements are great but I’m glad to see some of the things I remember are still here like these cabinets,” the ones she was pictured standing next to as a kindergartner. She fondly remembered “Mrs. Taylor,” her kindergarten teacher, and the now gone cafeteria tables that used to fold down from the walls in the former gym like Murphy beds. She enjoyed meeting kindergartners-to-be and explaining that she remembers how it feels to be starting school in a new school.
Yesterday most of the clocks in the building were stuck on 12:00, suggesting the staff and crews might like to call a timeout and take a deep breath to power them across the finish line of their race to bring an old school back to life. But the race is already won. Moore’s heart is beating again. And that finish line is also a starting line for kindergartners from five to seventy. There’s plenty more where the original Moore came from.
