Last year, Ames School fifth-grade teacher Amy Seymour worked in a windowless classroom. This year Seymour is teaching in a modern, bright, airy and spacious classroom bathed in natural light from a row of four tall north-facing windows.
“This is a serious upgrade,” Seymour said after teaching in her classroom for the first time on Sept. 2. “Walking in here was like walking into a different world. It feels very different than the old part of the school.”
Seymour’s new classroom is part of an 18,000-square-foot $10 million addition to Ames School completed with not a second to spare.
As schools in Riverside Elementary District 96 opened last week, a few finishing touches were still being buffed, including adding permeable pavers to the parking lot. The work went down to the wire.
District 96 didn’t receive an occupancy permit for the Ames School addition and its other elementary…
