After a crowded week of learning at Williams Intermediate School, students at Iola Roberts Elementary are settling into their new classrooms in their own building this week.

Students and teachers moved into the new building on Monday, signaling the substantial completion of the newly-renovated school.

“[At Williams Intermediate] teachers doubled up and we doubled up, we ended up having 1,125 students, not counting staff, in a building that was designed to function with 700 students plus staff,” Iola Roberts Principal Roy Bliss said. “But, it went smooth. Everybody’s just about wore out. We’ve worked almost around-the-clock this past weekend.”

But it was well worth the wait. The newly-renovated school provides a wide variety of amenities for teachers and students alike.

The original building, erected in 1954, has been showing its age for some time, but funding finally came through in recent years to renovate.  

“The superintendent, and other superintendents before him, had wanted to do something with Iola for awhile. But Dr. Hathcock was able to pull it off with the help of stimulus money,” Bliss explained.

Armed with $3.6 million in state and federal funds, the project took off when construction crews showed up for duty Dec. 13 to begin working on the new addition, which houses a new gymnasium and four classrooms that double as an above-ground storm shelter to protect students and staff in case of inclement weather. s

In April, the lunch room began its transformation, and the gym area started its transition into a significantly larger main office suite for administrative staff.

The new library’s hardwood floor is the leftover wood from the former gym floor.

June 1, after students and teachers left the building, the entirety of the old building was stripped to bare walls and rebuilt. Bliss described each classroom in the building now as a “21st Century Classroom,” with computer projectors built into each room, and Smartboards in a large number of the rooms.

The classrooms are outfitted with new technology, but the school also worked to maintain some of the historical look of the building, as well, like maintaining the familiar window panes above the classroom doors like many Iola Roberts graduates from the past may remember.

While the students are excited to get into their current classrooms, the excitement seems equal from the teachers and staff, as well.  

“The majority of our staff left on May 22 and didn’t see the school again until Aug. 11. They were elated, just overwhelmed with emotion,” Bliss said. “ The vast majority of my staff has been here 20 years or longer, and they really never thought they’d see this happen.”

With the hectic first week of school out of the way and the transition from Williams back to Iola complete, Bliss said the process went well, thanks to the hard work of all the school’s employees.

“Without the caliber of people we have here, I honestly don’t think it could have been done,” Bliss said.

The building brings new conveniences like hotel-like air conditioning units in individual classrooms, but it also helped every student get into a permanent classroom for the first time in quite awhile.  

“We were able to completely get rid of the portable classrooms. It’s been a goal to eliminate those. We had 10 to 12 of those in use, and we’re down to zero this year,” Bliss said, adding that the timing was crucial, as rezoning of Pell City schools added an additional 100 students to the school this year.

The building also has the future in mind, to accommodate for even more growth as Pell City continues to expand, he said.

“To have adequate space to do interventions and have our needs met without portable classrooms is just indescribable,” Bliss said. “And, of course, the educational experience is a result of the people in the classrooms, but now they have the resources they need to make their lives better, and hopefully because of that, to increase student achievement, as well.”