By Anne Ruisi
On the first day students and staff used the new building addition at Mountain Brook Junior High School, teacher Kimberly Mazanowski was arranging books and papers while setting up her classroom.
“The kids are so excited about the new space,” said Mazanowski, who is in her 10th year at the school and who taught in a temporary on-campus classroom pod while construction was underway. “I missed seeing the kids in the hallway.”
Chatty buzz among students changing classes in the hallways on Feb. 21 marked the first day in the new building, with different colors on each floor guiding students on their route to new classrooms.
Principal Donald Clayton smiled as he talked about the new facility.
“It is an exciting time to be a student here. We always have had a lot of quality here, in the institution, the buildings and the students,” he said. “Now this building matches the quality we have here.”
Inside the 43,000-square-foot addition are an expansive, atrium-like entrance with a wide staircase leading to the second and third floors, a conversation pit, a hangout area with step seating and a new parent reception area.
The 18 new classrooms are considerably larger than the ones they replaced, but the number of students in each, 20 to 24, is the same as before, said William Galloway, the school system’s communications/public relations specialist. New furniture in each includes triangular-shaped desks and chairs or tables and chairs, depending on what the teacher requested.
New suites for counselors and the school nurse were built, as was a tech hub. Last summer, the lunchroom was expanded by a couple of hundred square feet and in place of the auditorium is a new multipurpose space.
The school’s media center received a “facelift” that included new carpeting. And the choir room remained in its existing building but a turret was added. Space in the turret will be used for small group singing.
Also new are locker rooms for the gym and athletic use and new restrooms.
Finishing touches are being made and should be completed by spring break at the end the month, Galloway said.
Meaningful Changes
The one-story building that was on the site was torn down to build the new three-story structure known as Building B. This also means all the buildings on the junior high campus are connected, so that, for example, the seven minutes it took to go from the top of Building A to Building C is dramatically reduced, Galloway said.
Inside where the new building connects to an existing structure, the construction looks seamless; you can’t tell where the new and existing buildings meet.
Construction started in May 2021 and was part of a $75 million, districtwide improvement project approved by voters, Galloway said.
Other schools received improvements, such as 43 new classrooms added to the high school and a new cafeteria for Brookwood Forest Elementary.
