Prescott Schools Superintendent Robert Poole cuts the ribbon at the new elementary school building.

Ribbon was cut and a tour was conducted of Prescott’s new $9 million elementary school building just before lunchtime. 

Prescott Schools Superintendent Robert Poole in a speech before the ribbon was cut called today the second greatest day in the life of the new building, but said the greatest day is yet to come when on August 8 “all our kids walk in here and they see this building for the first time, and I wish you could see the smiles on their faces.”

Student safety was an emphasis in the design of the building, Poole said. “All the exterior windows are bullet resistant windows. Hopefully, we never have the situation,” he said, “But if we do, we’ve tried to make it safer. We have rooms inside to get kids out of sight, in terms of an active shooter situation. And the windows open up in case of a fire so the kids can get out easily.”

“As an administration one thing we really wanted to focus on was that in every decision, do what’s right for our kids,” Poole said.

After the ribbon-cutting Poole said he was pleased with the speed with which the project which, with the paving work, came in at $11.3 million, was completed just before the 2022-23 school year will start.

About 60 percent of the funding for the project came from state funds and the rest comes from a millage voters passed for the purpose.

After the ribbon was cut, about three dozen people of all ages filed inside to tour the building’s impressive foyer, its hallways, which extend outward from the foyer in a kind of star formation, several classrooms already decorated for the upcoming year and a large gym with four regulation basketball goals.