New Shawanoe Elementary is touted as a bridge to the future

It may be March, but in many ways it’s the first month of school for Shawanoe Elementary School students in Shawnee.

March 21 was the first day for students in their new building at 11230 W. 75th St., and from the atrium at the front entrance to the colorful new pre-kindergarten classroom, everything was shiny and new.

Students, parents, school and city officials celebrated Friday with a small dedication ceremony. “We’re not celebrating a building, although it’s a beautiful building,” said Superintendent Jim Hinson. “We’re celebrating the impact it will have on the lives of children for not only today but many, many decades ahead.”

The new school is a major upgrade from the building next door that was erected in 1960 as Lenexa North Elementary, said Principal Alejandro Schlagel.

Not only does it have new paint, fixtures and carpet but more and new types of learning space for a growing enrollment, he said.

Schlagel, who has been at Shawanoe about five years, said the enrollment has steadily increased in his time and the school building had become crowded — or “squished” as one student in a school-produced video explained at the dedication.

Enrollment this year, including pre-kindergarten, is 430, he said; about 100 more than when Schlagel started at the school.

The new building substantially increases the space for all those students, from about 54,000 square feet in the old building to 85,000 square feet now. The two-year building project cost about $16 million and was regular capital outlay, not a part of last year’s bond issue.

That space allows Shawanoe to have a gym with a stage and a separate enlarged cafeteria space, for example. The old school had only a multi-purpose room to handle the large gatherings. And support space for cooking meals and storage has also increased.

But the learning space is also organized differently. The school now has a “maker space” adjacent to the library available for all classes and ages where kids can investigate hands-on how things work. For instance, students might learn the mechanics of a traditional land-line phone by taking one apart, Schlagel said. The maker space does not have a 3-D printer in the pipeline, and is waiting on some supplies such as Lego robotics and other crafting tools, he added.

There’s also a room dedicated for a science lab with more sinks and workspace, work rooms for students and teachers to meet and a spacious pre-K room outfitted with colorful décor, low counters and tiny porcelain fixtures in its bathroom.

The school has color-coded hallways and a much lighter, airier feeling, in part because the ceilings are higher, Schlagel said. Ceilings at the old building had been lowered over the years to accommodate wiring for technology, he said.

The library, too, is a brighter and airier space, he said.

That may be in part because there are fewer books. The district used the move as an opportunity to cull books that were showing too much wear and offer them to teachers for classroom use, said district spokesperson Leigh Anne Neal.

That’s standard procedure at all schools, she said. Although there may not be as many hard-copy books on hand, the school will still have a robust collection and will have increased access to non-fiction digital resources as well, she said.

Some of the furniture is a little different, too. About 70 percent of the furniture in the school is traditional, but the rest uses a combination of longer tables to encourage collaboration and Hokki stools — a stool with a slightly rounded base that can rock and move a little with fidgety students.

The new building was put up within a few yards of the old Shawanoe, as students attended class there. The old building is still standing, but is supposed to be torn down by late April, Schlagel said. The playground and parking lot should be finished by the time school starts next year.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 11:07 PM with the headline "New Shawanoe Elementary is touted as a bridge to the future."