As the school year began last week for Greene County Middle School students, they – like the high school students – entered the year with a new building.

Fifth-eighth graders are now attending classes at the former high school building on Ram Drive, located in southern Jefferson. There are some new changes to the facility, including open seating where a set of lockers used to be next to the lunch room, part of what was Ram Restaurant is now the main office and the kitchen area will become the new district office and boardroom. Students and the public wanting to enter the facility will now have to be buzzed in through the secured entrance.

Superintendent Tim Christensen says the project is ongoing, but he is impressed with how it’s been so far.

“I think the project has gone fantastic. I’m very excited about people to see the building. A lot of open space, a lot of collaboration spaces, some new furniture and new paint, and some of those things. There’s some fantastic places in the building.”

Christensen notes they continue to be on track to open the district office by November and the gym will be ready next month. He says the gym will seat 300 people and is excited to have a self-dedicated space for middle school activities.

“That’s one thing, the middle school to have their own gymnasium, and be able to host events and everything is fantastic. Again, they had a gym at the (former) middle school for the last ‘x’ number of years, but it was considered the high school gym, the main competition gym. So to have their own space is going to be very exciting.”

The contract is Henkel Construction and the funds for the over $4 million project is through future proceeds of the Secure an Advance Vision for Education (SAVE) funds.