Ready for school: Yuma Elementary expansion gets finishing touches

YUMA — One of two school expansion projects in Scott County is getting ready for classes on Aug. 17. County school board members and county officials got a guided tour of Yuma Elementary School's new $2.75 million, six-room wing Thursday as school maintenance got desks, lockers and other equipment ready for the expected 200 pre-K through sixth grade students arriving in 10 days for the new school year. The wing features two full-sized classrooms, which Principal Valerie Babb said will allow third grade classes to be brought back into the main building from trailer classrooms connected to the building by an awning-covered external walkway. "It's safer for the kids," Babb said, adding that three separate rooms will allow more privacy for teachers handling special program classes such as speech and remedial math and reading sessions. "Before this, we'd have four different special program classes in different corners of the same room," said Babb. "This will be better for the students and the teachers. A fifth room will serve as an office for the assistant principal, Babb said. That will allow administrators to monitor and respond to situations better, she added. The two main classrooms include lockers for the students, and all five classrooms will have smart TV screens and magnetic whiteboards. Four individual restrooms will offer privacy for students. "The general reaction is that it's a very nice addition for the Yuma community," Superintendent Jason Smith said of the expansion. "It's much needed for the services that we provide here. We're able to get our support services in areas that will help our children on a day-to-day basis." "It's an exciting thing for the school division and the community to have this," Smith said. "It's been needed for instruction for our kids, and it'll be a positive thing for the learning environment." As Smith spoke, the class bell system rang at 1:40 p.m. "The bells work too," Smith said, laughing. "Construction went very smoothly, and we're satisfied. It's gone very, very well." Weber City Elementary School is the second of two expansion projects, groundbreaking for that $2.6 million project having started in February. Smith said the Weber City project has been under roof with HVAC units now placed on its roof. "The completion date (for Weber City) is Dec. 24," said Smith, "and we're very hopeful we'll be in that addition in January." New hire After Thursday's building tour, the school board held its regular meeting and voted to hire former Superintendent John Ferguson as a part-time administrator to oversee the school division's food services.