The new-look former Mount Washington Elementary School, now called The Mount Washington School, was all dressed up with nowhere to go on Aug. 30, as the start of the school year was postponed for a second straight day due toHurricane Irene.
The school, previously in one building at 1801 Sulgrave Ave., has been transformed. It is no longer called Mount Washington Elementary because it is no longer just an elementary school. It now has students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grades. It has not one building, but two, because the school system is leasing Shrine of the Sacred Heart on Smith Avenue from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
The Mount Washington School has new computer labs, expanded libraries, a renovated gymnasium with a new floor and basketball hoops, classrooms with electronic "whiteboards" and spiffy front offices.
It has eight new teachers, and a new international baccalaureate program for 80 students.
And as the school year started, sixth-graders were supposed to be going through a three-day Outward Bound program in Leakin Park.
After $1.3 million in renovations, "This is the end result," said Principal Sue Torr, greeting parents and children in the Sulgrave Avenue building during a "sneak peak" open house and grand opening Aug, 26, before Irene hit.
But early this week, the school was still waiting for its official closeup.
"Your guess is as good as mine" as to when school will open, Torr said. She said the Mount Washington School had power, but many public schools in the city still didn't.
The loss of two days of school already caused at least one casualty — the Outward Bound team-building program will be reduced to one day, Torr said.
And she said that the closing of school interrupted the "anticipation, excitement and momentum" for students.
But Torr said the excitement would come back quickly once school started.
"Nothing could dampen our excitement about a new building," she said.
That excitement was evident Aug. 26, at the open house.
"This is Ms. Calhoun's kindergarten class," said a smiling woman at a teacher's desk, greeting families in Room 101 of what used to be the Shrine of the Sacred Heart Catholic School.
And where was Ms. Calhoun?
"It's me," said Kimberly Calhoun, smiling even wider.
Calhoun said she always looks forward to "a fresh start" in the fall
"This is just a little bit fresher," she said.
Hundreds of families toured both buildings and assembled in the Living Outdoor Classroom, a large gathering area with an amphitheater, for a party with hamburgers, hot dogs, a raffle for a free Kindle (a fundraising for the school PTO), and greetings from school system CEO Andres Alonso and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, whose daughter, Sophia, is a rising third grader at Mount Washington.
The party was co-sponsored by Ethel and Ramone's restaurant in the Mount Washington Village shopping district, the Mount Washington Mill shopping center, and Discern Consulting, which is based in Mount Washington.
The celebration of a new school year came after a an award-winning 2010 for Mount Washington Elementary and its staff. The school was chosen by the state as a blue-ribbon school, the only one in the city, and Margaret May, a fifth grade language arts and social studies teacher, was named teacher of the year, the only one in the city.
"We are a fortunate group," said Rawlings-Blake, who identified herself to the audience of about 500 people as "Sophia's mom."
Parents and students were impressed.
"The gym, the library and the computer lab are the things that are most impressive," said Ramon Espejo-Saavedra, after touring the Sulgrave Avenue building with his wife, Anna Gomez-Perez. Their children, Pablo, a fifth-grader, Marcos, a third-grader, and Carmen, a first-grader, all go to Mount Washington.
And Gomez-Perez said, "We are very happy to have the school go up to middle school."
At the former Shrine of the Sacred Heart school, Daniel Pangaribuan, whose son, Noah, 5, will be a kindergartner, admired Calhoun's classroom, while his wife, Arimbi, took pictures with a computer tablet.
"I want to show this to my mom in Indonesia," she said.
The family moved to Mount Washington from Charles Village after 10 years, Daniel Pangaribuan said.
"This is the reason we moved here, because of the school — blue ribbon," he said.