A school named Sunnyside Elementary School is now living up to its name as the Pulaski Community School District finishes the last of its 2022 referendum projects.
Residents in and around the Town of Chase got to see the newly expanded school during an open house Sept. 3 where school officials and students discovered what almost two years of construction work yields. Besides the fact that the existing school was built in the 1980s, the school was one of several seeing an increased student population, and the smaller building with a lack of windows in many classrooms could no longer fit the students. Portable classrooms had provided a bandage for the situation, but much more space was needed.
No more, Superintendent Allison Space said prior to a ribbon cutting welcoming the community inside. As sunlight beamed into the commons area through high up windows, Space said Sunnyside was entering a new chapter in its history.
“If you spent any time in the old spaces at Sunnyside, you know that some of our classrooms were, to put it nicely, quite cozy and a little bit short on windows,” Space said. “What our students and staff lacked in natural light, they more than made up for in the energy, creativity and heart that they have put into this building.”
Now, the school has open and airy learning areas, Space said, along with a courtyard playground for the younger children that includes rubberized flooring for safety purposes. Windows in the new library on the southwest corner of the school let in plenty of sunlight as parents, grandparents and students walked through to see what would await curious readers in the coming year.
“Sunnyside has never felt more like its name,” Space said.
She credited the community and the school board for having the “vision” for making the changes at Sunnyside and other schools in the district happen. She also praised Bray Architects, based in Sheboygan, for designing the school that feels both inspiring and airy.
“It’s perfectly tuned to the needs of our young learners,” Space said.
The superintendent noted that the staff at Sunnyside was very flexible during the almost two-year construction period since the groundbreaking in November 2022. Since then, workers and students have shared the already tight space to turn the school into a place that can welcome new students in the years to come.
“Thank you for walking in those tiny, narrow hallways. Thank you for putting up with all the noise and jack-hammering that was happening,” Space said. “Thank you for the good humor and the focus on kids throughout the entire process.”
Space urged the students to make the most of the expanded facility.
“This is your school,” she said. “We are so very proud that you get to listen in this environment. It’s your place to learn and to grow and to shine. We hope you feel that every time you walk through these doors and enter these spaces.”
Clinton Selle, an architect with Bray, said that the Sunnyside expansion project had one of the more unusual concepts he’d seen in his years of bringing buildings to life.
“There’s been several moments in my career where we go into a meeting and we have a bold or audacious idea, and we go ‘You want to do what?’ kind of idea, and this was one of them,” Selle said. “This was really a story of what to do with a basement from abandon it entirely to carve out land around to get windows in.”
Among the changes to the school was a skylight that provides light to the basement area, where the older grades will be housed. Selle said the new space is invigorating for learning.
“I think it really reflects the vision and direction for education in the future,” Selle said. “It’s going to be a great space for students in the years to come.”
C.D. Smith Construction, the company that built Sunnyside’s expansion, would not have been able to make it happen without the district’s organized facilities department, according to Marc McGuire, project manager.
“We thought you were crazy when you thought we should put in this skylight courtyard in the middle of the building,” McGuire said. “We were really happy how it turned out. We tore off the roof of this building, the floors and the walls while this building was occupied.”
McGuire noted it was to the district’s credit that hundreds of people came out to the open house to see what was created.
“This is why we love building schools,” he said. “People are excited about it, and it’s different from a lot of other construction.”
Besides Sunnyside, the school district added technology education classrooms at Pulaski High School and expanded Hillcrest Elementary School in Oneida. Renovations and updates were conducted with all the remaining schools as part of the $69.8 million referendum.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
