New Haven Independent

Leading the parade Monday morning toward the new school were members of Kids Build, a team of sixth and seventh graders from Beecher and other schools who got a chance to serve as consultants for the renovation project. They learned about building maintenance and the importance of energy- efficient windows. They also chose the playground equipment, which Tiana Scales (holding the banner, right front) explained is important. Click here to hear her thoughts on recess and global warming.

Beecher, in the Beaver Hill neighborhood, is the 24th school to be built or totally renovated, and marks the half-way point in Mayor John DeStefano’s school construction program. It cost $40 million. The mayor was on hand Monday. He told the students, “We usually open up schools in August, but we are so excited (arms spread wide) that we’re opening this school in April.”

School principal Kathy Russell cut the ribbon over the door with Democratic Town Chairwoman Susie Voigt (back to camera) whose late husband, Alderman Phil Voigt, had championed building the new school.

For architect Barry Svigals (pictured at left with DeStefano, Russell and Superintendent Reggie Mayo), Beecher was the fourth New Haven school his firm, Svigals + Partners, has built.

He described the frieze of dancing children that runs all the way around the school and inside, leading the kids into the school. He added, “The scale of the school here is for kids. We want them to feel comfortable so they’ll want to come to school. Everything about the school is about trying to nurture that. The floor plan inside is very clear, so the kids don’t feel like they’re in some sort of maze. They can always see out. Kids are like plants — they need light and air.”

Even though it’s a large school, the kids can identify each classroom from the outside because each one is indented slightly rather than having the whole school follow one continuous straight line.

How much can a beautiful new school help students actually learn?

Bertha McArthur, mother of two kids at the school, said, “I think they’ll get a better education just by looking and appreciating what they got.”

Samuel Melton, with Naveh, 3, Ramel, 5 and Jairu 7 (left to right), said he loves the new building. But he said it’s the teachers who will play a bigger role in his kids’ school success.

Here’s what Russell said about her new school: “When the aesthetics are working in your favor, I think that increases the chances that you’ll have higher student achievement, a greater sense of teacher morale.”

The old school was K-5; the new one, in keeping with all the non-high schools built or renovated under DeStefano, will be pre K through 8. The school opened on Monday with 330 kids in grades K-6; it will add kids at the younger and older ends of the spectrum up to a capacity of 600.