School transformed into central office

During the course of its 46-year lifespan, Wilson Elementary School has been a number of things to Green River residents.

Many studied in the building during its time as an elementary school. Others remember the building as Expedition Academy’s home until the alternative high school relocated. Most recently, students from Monroe Intermediate School utilized the building as sections of the middle school were renovated two years ago. Now, it will house the district’s administrative staff.

The school district hosted a ribbon cutting and tour of the former elementary school last week prior to the board of trustees’ meeting.

The gym is gone, replaced with a spacious meeting room for the district’s board of trustees. Many of the original classrooms became offices for district administrators. The lighting was replaced with LED bulbs, reducing lights from 100 watts apiece to 5 watts.

Superintendent Donna Little-Kaumo said the school board has championed re-using vacated buildings opposed to letting them sit unused, which has helped keep costs low for the district. This is the case for Expedition Academy when a former church was used to house the high school as opposed to building a new building for the school. Another example is the district using Wilson to house students from MIS during Monroe’s renovation as opposed to using modular buildings to house classrooms.

Little-Kaumo said the district spent about a week moving into the building with the district’s payroll department being operational in a single day.

Some of the money spent in renovating the school building didn’t go unquestioned. During a board meeting in June, trustee member Steve Core questioned the need to spend $150,000 for new furniture in the building. Little-Kaumo responded the furniture in use at that time did not match the color scheme approved for central administration’s new location, saying the building would need new furniture. The school board passed the request, with Core being the only dissenting vote.

“They really used the space well,” board member John Malone said. “Everything is in a logical order.”

Malone substituted at the building while it was occupied by Expedition Academy, saying how impressed he was with the transformation of the school’s gym into the board of trustees’ meeting room.

Board members Robin Steiss and Corina Tynsky agreed with Malone’s thoughts on the building’s new look.

“The building is beautiful,” Tynsky said. “The people working here will be happy here.”