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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – “This… this is just… this is nice, like I don’t know what to say, I’m speechless guys,” were the words 8th grader Devin Coles as hundreds gathered in the Charlottesville Middle School gym for the grand opening Friday of the entire school.
Last year to the day on Aug 14, Charlottesville City Schools held a ribbon cutting for 7th and 8th graders to attend the new school. This year, 6th graders joined the student body and an old section of the building’s renovation was completed. That work includes a refurbished library and cafeteria, an 8th grade hall, a STEM hall, and an upgraded performing arts center with more room for orchestra, band, and chorus, and expanded stage area for the auditorium.
“This school has really let me grow and has really let me express myself through my love and passion of music and through my thoughts on creativity” Coles told the gathering. “I want to be a rapper when I grow up, and I want to be a lot of things when I grow up, and this school is very supportive on that.”
New Principal Summerlyn Thompson welcomed community leaders including State Senator Creigh Deeds, all of the current City Council, and some past City Councilors, as well as current and former members of the School Board.
Mayor Juandiego Wade was on the School Board when this school was approved in 2019.
“This is six years of work, fruition of six years of works,” Wade told Cville Right Now. “Commitment from the community, City Council, and the School Board, this is what collaboration looks like.”
Surrounded by Wade, and other city and school leaders, as well as State Senator Creigh Deeds, Coles did the honors of banging the gong to ceremonially open the school.
The project cost $91 million. It emphasized natural light, and open floor plans for collaborative learning, which Charlottesville-based VMDO Architects designed to foster a better learning environment.
“Natural light is shown to raise test scores,” said VMDO Senior Associate Ben Thompson as he gave a tour of the school.
The new spaces in the new construction were the highlights of the tour in last year’s ribbon-cutting.
What the public got to see in this tour was renovations of the old Buford building with an exterior renovation making is cohesive with the new building.
But the inside spaces remained similar, though, the media center was moved from one side of the old building to the other.
On the side of the media center opposite the atrium is the 8th grade house with large areas outside classrooms for collaborative learning, and large windows in the classrooms for teachers to be able to keep their eye on students not in the classroom.
The tour turned a corner into a STEM hallway which had undergone a 2013 refurbishment also designed by VMDO. At the very front of the old building is a new entryway to the auditorium. The back wall of the stage opens up into what Thompson called the “drama” room. During performances, that wall can be opened to create more and deeper stage space.
Because visual arts classrooms were constructed in the new building, other rooms surrounded the auditorium are now available for band, chorus, and orchestra in what is now a full performing arts center.
Speaking at the ceremony, Wade spoke of the first-hand inspiration he’s seen from a proper school infrastructure.
“My own daughter was inspired by the science and technology in the classrooms here at Buford, and because of that today she is an engineer,” Wade told the crowd. “And so I ask you, what inspires you? What will you become?
“Whatever it is, your city is rooting for you,” Wade concluded before a gong sounded.