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  • Payton Caylor, a kindergartener in Tollis Bonds' class at Northwest Elementary, smears shaving cream on her desk to practice writing her name and drawing shapes in it on the first day of school Tuesday. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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  • Students sit in the lunchroom during the first day of class at North Murray High School on Tuesday. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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  • Hannah Goble, a second-grader in Kelly Page's class at Coker Elementary School, reads about herself to her classmates sitting near her during the first day of school on Tuesday. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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  • Anita Scott, a math teacher at Murray County High School, goes over her class expectations on the first day of school Tuesday. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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  • Chef Clyde Rush introduces his culinary arts class to some of the equipment they will be using this year during the first day of school Tuesday. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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  • Kendra Roach, a junior at North Murray High School, begins learning a song on the steel drums on the first day of school Tuesday. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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  • Omar Romero, a freshman at North Murray High School, takse notes as Steve Colley, the public safety teacher at the school lectures on the first day of school Tuesday. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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  • Cynthia Stanfield, a third-grade teacher at Coker Elementary School, uses the Active Board while teaching her class math on the first day of school Tuesday. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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  • Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen Jacob Lawless, a first-grader at Northwest Elementary School, plays the cow bell during Candy McArthur's music class on the first day of school Tuesday.

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  • Students at North Murray High School make their way down the main staircase during a class change on the first day of school Tuesday. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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  • Students at North Murray High School make their way down the main staircase during a class change on the first day of school Tuesday. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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  • Michael Tatum, a fourth-grader in Stephanie Petty's class at Northwest Elementary, draws his self portrait on the first day of class on Tuesday. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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  • Students at Murray County High School go through the lunch lines during the first day of school on Tuesday.

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  • Maria Bradley, principal of North Murray High School, directs students to their class during a class change on the first day of school on Tuesday. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

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  • Morgan Bowman, a kindergartener in Tollis Bonds' class at Northwest Elementary School, shows her classmates her hand after touching shaving cream on the first day of school Tuesday. The students smear the shaving cream on their desk then practice writing their names or drawing shapes in it. Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen

    murray back to school2.jpg

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September 8, 2010

‘Neer building opens to 760

Rachel Brown rachelbrown@daltoncitizen.com

CHATSWORTH — Dressed in Mountaineer black and gold, North Murray High School Principal Maria Bradley stood at the foot of the new school’s grand staircase Tuesday morning directing students to their classes.

As Murray County Schools students resumed classes on Tuesday after a three-month summer break, Bradley beamed as she described her students’ reactions to the day they’ve been looking forward to for more than two years.

“It wasn’t like they were coming to school,” Bradley said. “It was like they were coming to a tourist attraction.”

This is North Murray’s second year as a school, but students spent last year in the former Gladden Middle School building on Green Road while they waited for the 280,000-square-foot building on Mount Carmel Church Road to be completed.

Administrators took the first hour-and-a-half of the day for student orientations and a tour of the school. Work on the building was ongoing through the weekend, and Tuesday was the first time students were allowed inside.

“I was really amazed,” sophomore Nicole Gibson said. “The lunch room looks like a restaurant.”

Teachers had to complete their preparations by Thursday night with some staying as late as 11 p.m. as fire alarms were tested on Friday. Music teacher Lynn Infanger, who is in her first year at the school but has been a teacher since 1978, said North Murray students for the first time will have steel drums in their music program. Many of the students have little or no music background, she said, so they’ll be learning at the same pace.

Bradley said she and her staff worked to design a school that would have a modern, relaxed feel that mirrors the kinds of things students like to do when they’re outside the school building. The cafeteria features brick dividers lined with benches and walls almost entirely of windows so students can see a few of the mountains while they eat. The seating consists mostly of regular and tall tables similar to the kind of seating at a shopping mall’s food court.

Students had not seen the media center on Tuesday as books were still being unpacked and moved in, but Bradley said she looks forward to having a Barnes and Noble-type atmosphere where students can get coffee and small snacks while inside and lounge with their drinks and books in soft chairs by the windows. The library will be a place where students can go to learn and have fun at the same time, she said.

“So many times the media center has been off limits to kids and you have to be quiet,” Bradley said. “This is not about the quiet zone anymore.”

Zach Vess, a sophomore basketball player, was impressed with the school’s basketball court, scheduled to be completed in a couple of weeks. The main gym is one area of the building still under construction, but there are several details throughout the building — a door fixture here, a decorative covering for a handrail there, and so on — yet to be completed.

Still, it was nowhere close to being the unfinished, unpainted product that some students said they had feared. Among the things several students said they liked was the grand staircase leading up to the second floor.

Junior Elliott Perez said his favorite aspect of the building is its newness.

“It’s really nice,” he said. “It’s new. It’s big. It was a lot more than I expected.”

Junior Katie Claxton said the school is “really nice.”

“It’s just different from most schools,” she said. “There’s more space, and you’re not running into everybody.”

Bradley said she wants the school’s design and its atmosphere to make it stand out.

“I don’t want this to be your traditional high school,” she said. “I want it to be the ultimate kid experience.”

At Murray County High School, Principal Gina Linder said the opening of North Murray continues to alleviate some of the crowding at her school. First day enrollment figures showed Murray County High had 1,134 students while North Murray had 763, but officials said those numbers will likely rise some over the next few days.

Last year, Murray County High had 1,471 students on the first day, and there were 486 at North Murray, which didn’t have an 11th grade then. The year before that, before North Murray existed, Murray County High had 2,004 students the first day.

“North Murray opening and taking on that junior class has really made a difference,” Linder said.

Seniors Allison Peden and Jade Mathis said they haven’t been able to tell a difference in how crowded Murray High is, but they said they’re glad to be back after the summer break.

“I love how friendly the teachers are,” Peden said. “I’m real excited to be back.”

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