Sanders-Clyde School ready for reopening

Sanders-Clyde School students and faculty will parade on Tuesday into a brand new building designed to enhance the school's arts-related focus.

The downtown school has been transitioning into an arts-infused campus in which the arts are used to teach math, reading, science and social studies.

The new, $25.7 million building will strengthen its arts emphasis and spotlight its students' talents, said Principal Melvin Middleton.

"We're just excited about the possibilities of what the next few years will bring," he said.

The idea of taking the highest poverty school in Charleston County

and giving it an arts makeover goes back to former Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson and a partnership she developed with nationally known artist Jonathan Green.

Green agreed to create an original piece of art for the school, and the massive mural adorns the exterior wall of the school's main entrance. A bold green-and-yellow quilt is the focal piece of the mural, and the foreground of the design features a dog and four children.

This project marks the first time a district school has been used to display art in the public realm, and it's a concept officials hope to potentially replicate at other new downtown schools, said Bill Lewis, executive director of the district's building program.

Green has loaned the rights of the mural to the school, so money made through any reproduction of the image will go to Sanders-Clyde. The school plans to pursue fundraising activities involving the mural once it moves into the new building, Middleton said.

Because of the substantial role Sanders-Clyde plays in the community, officials tried to ensure that its building looked like part of its surroundings, Lewis said. The back of the school, which faces East Bay Street, was redesigned to enhance its community presence, and it includes a patio with chairs and display areas for student artwork.

The school's entryway has two-story-high ceilings, transom windows and large cases for student artwork. Soft, nautical blues and greens adorn the walls and terrazzo floors.

Officials rebuilt the school on the same site, so students moved to the Archer building down the street. Neither the former campus nor the Archer building had a gym, but the new Sanders-Clyde School does.

Elementary schools typically have multi-purpose rooms and middle schools have gyms; Sanders-Clyde started a middle school program a few years ago, and it now serves kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

"I'm thinking about pep rallies and midnight basketball for the community," Middleton said as he surveyed the gym's large windows and hardwood floors.

The school's performing arts area doubles as its cafeteria. The space has a moveable dividing wall and the lighting and sound equipment needed to host professional productions, such as those during Spoleto.

Middleton said students will take full advantage of the space; the school hired full-time art, drama and music teachers this year who will help push arts integration.

"It's a matter of using the facility to highlight the students," Middleton said. "We have the space where all of the students can work and practice and put on bigger productions."

The media center is at the heart of the U-shaped building, and its two-story-high windows overlook a large courtyard. Outside, a platform extends from that area and provides another space for assemblies or performances.

Each of the four hallways feature bold colors -- gold, purple, apple green and orange. Those were among Middleton's biggest concerns because he said he wanted to create a place where children would be happy.

Middleton likes the bright sunlight that comes through the building's many windows, and he thinks it will have a positive effect on students. "You just feel better," he said.

Classrooms are clustered in pairs or trios, and they open up to a small, shared space that can be used for project work or additional instruction. Those areas have more windows and a place for students to sit on the wall.

Each grade level is assigned a different part of the building, and they mostly will stay in those areas. Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students have doors leading outside to a patio that runs the length of the building.

The school has three computer labs, compared to one at the Archer building, and like every other new district building, each classroom has a new SmartBoard, computer and new furniture.

Teachers started moving into the building last week and will work through the weekend to get their classrooms ready. The school's longest-serving staff member, Brenda Johnson, works in the school's front office as a bookkeeper and secretary.

The 28-year school employee had a chance to walk through the new school, and she believes it will be a new beginning for students. It's bigger and brighter, and it's going to give students and teachers a more positive frame of mind, Johnson said.

"It's wonderful," she said. "I think the excitement is going to impact the students and staff. Everybody's talking about the move. They're excited and they're ready to come."

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.