Fairview prepares for building move

Current and former students and staff of Fairview Elementary School as well as community members will have a final opportunity to bid farewell to Fairview’s old school building, part of which will be demolished in the summer as the school prepares to move to a new site in the fall.

Fairview, the only school in the Monroe County Community School Corporation near downtown Bloomington, will host a community day from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday for students, staff and friends of the school to celebrate the history of the old school building.

During this community day, student council members will lead building tours, student musicians will play their instruments, favorite Fairview memories will be recorded for their archives and a celebration will be held in the gym.

First-grade teacher Megan Parmenter said the school has already received feedback from former students, staff and friends of Fairview that they would attend the celebration.

“As we’re moving forward to the new Fairview, we are excited to honor our school’s history,” Parmenter said.

The current building, located at 627 W. 8th St., was built on a seven-storied structure and constructed in three phases, Parmenter said. The oldest part of the building was built in 1920, and the rest was constructed in 1953.

Fairview principal Karen Adams said in an interview with Parmenter that the old building is not handicap-accessible and needs a lot of repairs.

“The basement floods in one area every time it rains,” Adams said. “There are cracks in some of the walls, and some of the limestone is crumbling away from the sides of the building.”

Adams said there are also issues with plumbing and heating.

Remodeling was not a cost-efficient solution, and school officials proposed constructing a new building in fall 2007, Adams said.

The new building is on the same site where the school playground once was, but there are four floors instead of seven. It also features a regulation-sized gym with a wooden floor.

Adams said that during construction, the school and workers worked together minimize the inconvenience brought by the construction.

During the week of Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus, the building was shaking as limestone was broken up for removal, Adams said.

Adams also said that good communication ensured the continuation of the school’s academic activity.

“We asked that the workers do something else while we took the test,” she said. “They readily agreed.”

Teachers and students are excited about the move and looking forward to the new additions.

“I feel excited about going to the new school because we are going to move onto the second floor,” second-grader Gavin Hillenburg  said in an interview with Parmenter.

“There is going to be a new playground. I think we are going to have fun there.”

Second-grader Chloe Shook said in an interview with Parmenter that she could see a “squeaky clean” picture of the new school.

“I feel good about the new school because we get to have new bathrooms and things, and all of our materials and supplies are going to be new,” Shook said in an interview with Parmenter. “There is going to be a new lunchroom, a new library, a new gym and new stage. We’ll work hard to keep it that nice.”

To the Fairview teachers, the move has its own meaning.

“I’m so excited to move into the new building,” Parmenter said. “I’ve enjoyed watching it go up over the past year and documenting the construction progress with my students. I’m happy that our students will have the opportunity to attend school in such a fantastic new building.”