HOUSTON – In less than a week, students from one Houston Independent School District elementary school will get a chance to walk the halls of their brand-new, state-of-the-art building.
Administrators said much of the new Condit Elementary is a cross between a hotel lobby and a college campus.
The new 83,000-square-foot building is a far cry from the original building constructed in 1914.
Instead of a traditional library, it features an open-learning commons.
“That allows the books to be accessible to our kids throughout the school day,” Assistant Principal Lacey Grimm said. “In the old school setting the only time you could use a library was when there was not a class in there.”
The classrooms also feature some nontraditional-shaped desks and seats that bounce.
“The desks are set up so they can sit in different configurations,” Grimm said. “So you can actually get into a circle with five students, or you can get in pairs in two.”
“Some people need to stand to learn, some people need to rock to learn, some people need to bounce up and down a little bit,” Principal Dan Greenberg said.
Construction of the building was funded by the school district’s bond program.
Condit Elementary is one of six new buildings open for the 2016-2017 school year.
It also features wet labs with outdoor access, abundant natural light throughout the building, operable windows, energy efficient hand-dryers and Wi-Fi.