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New School For The New School Year In Williamsport

WILLIAMSPORT — School is right around the corner for students in Williamsport and for seventh and eighth graders in the district, they’ll return to ...

WILLIAMSPORT -- School is right around the corner for students in Williamsport and for seventh and eighth graders in the district, they'll return to a whole new school later this month.

We took a tour of the new middle school in Billtown.

The Williamsport Area School District has been shuffling students around for the past couple years and the new middle school will be the final part of the plan.

The former Roosevelt Middle School underwent a major renovation and addition and is nearly ready for the first day of classes.

Desks, chairs, and all sorts of school supplies are on the move and on their way to their new home at Williamsport Area Middle School.

The old Roosevelt Middle School has undergone more than $30 million in renovations and will open for the school year August 26.

"I think our students will be extremely impressed with the environment we've been able to create," said Principal Brandon Pardoe.

The new school comes complete with a new fitness center, state of the art science labs, and much more for the 800 plus students who will learn inside and outside the walls.

"It brings the previous middle schools together under one roof for seventh and eighth grade students," said Pardoe.

The new and improved Roosevelt Middle School will have a lot of new green features, including a rooftop garden to be planted outside to help with energy efficiency  in addition to 175 geothermal wells that were drilled to help heat and cool the inside of this school.

"The goal was to make sure we had (for) our children a good place to come to school and give them every opportunity to learn in an environment that was clean, safe and high tech," said construction manager George Dickerson.

Dickerson has overseen the entire project that more than doubled the size of the school and says there are some finishing touches left before the middle school is back in business.

School officials say they'll be ready.

"We're going to be ready to welcome our families into the school to see where their classrooms are, know where to report, understand the function of the building for the first day of school," Pardoe added.

Students who used to go to Roosevelt Middle School were split between two other schools until this project was complete.

An open house will be held in two weeks for students and parents at the new middle school.

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