New Effingham County Middle School Opens Early

Teachers and students in the Coastal Empire and Low Country will be doing just that in a few days.

Bryan County students go back to school on Friday. Students in Liberty County will be back in their classrooms on Thursday.

Chatham County students are the last in the state to go back to school they start September first.

Effingham students have just a few days before they're back in class. Wednesday is their first day.

As 3 On Your Side education reporter, Randi Hempel shows us, some Effingham Middle School students will be learning in a brand new school this year.

Construction crews, teachers and staff members work to put the finishing touches on the new Effingham County Middle School.

Principal, Robert Porterfield, was more than excited to show it off.

"So how do you feel about being in the new school?” I ask.

“Oh, it's great. Its absolutely wonderful. Our entire attitude with our students, well, our faculty came in this morning and it's already you can tell a change in their attitudes about doing things and it's a beautiful, beautiful school," explains Porterfield.

700 students will enjoy the new digs this year and there's room to grow. The school is built for 1000 students.

“The board of education allowed our faculty to have input back in the planning of this school and we made 35 suggestions to them and they kept 32 of them so our faculty really feels like they had a lot of input with this school. And there's a lot of buy in by them,” continues Porterfield.

One of the features principal Porterfield is most proud of is these graphics on the walls.

“There's 4 sets of them on each hallway and the teachers will be allowed to put student of the week, they'll be allowed to put exemplary work of the week,” he says.

Each room is equipped with Interwrite Boards. They're connected to the teacher's computer and a projector puts the information up for all of the students to see.

The tech-savvy teens will be learning in the lap of luxury in just a few days.

The school was finished six months ahead of schedule.

The attendance zones will be re-drawn for next year, so more students will be coming to the school.

We do have a friendly reminder for parents regarding student drop off. You can only enter the west gate entrance to the school to drop off and pick up your students. You can then either exit through the east gate or continue on the campus road to the high school.

Traffic will be one way from 7:45 – 8:30 a.m. and 3 until 3:45 p.m.