RUSHVILLE —

On Aug. 16, students will step foot for the first time into the fully-operational new elementary schools in Arlington and Milroy. It will mark the completion of a building project that began in the fall of 2008. The schools have identical blueprints, each with 60,000 square feet boasting 18 classrooms, an art and science room, a music room, two computer labs and a media center. There is also a cafeteria, stage and gymnasium in each school. Superintendent of Rush County Schools Dr. John Williams said that these new buildings will help keep the school corporation on track with their mission – “Yes We Can!” “We get faced with challenges all the time with new situations and new opportunities. I think we have to approach everything from a ‘Yes We Can’ attitude,” Williams said. “Whatever the situation is, whether it’s positive or less than positive, if you approach it from a ‘Yes We Can’ standpoint I think you’re more likely to meet with success.” As for what will happen to the two old schools, Williams said they will be taking a “wait and see attitude.” “First of all, they’re going to have to store some of our furniture that we’re not going to use for a period of time until we have an auction. Then, once we get it totally cleaned out, we’re going to have to decide whether or not there’s someone out there that wants to purchase them or use them for another purpose or if we’re going to have them demolished,” Williams said. Delmonte Wagner, 1957 Arlington High School graduate, said, “I’d hate to see [the Arlington school] torn down, but I don’t want it to sit there and fall down by itself. I hate it, but it has to be done. It’s progress I guess. We need a new school to be safe for the kids.” And it’s the safety aspect that Sue Lebo, principal of Milroy Elementary School, said was one of the most important parts of the move. “The world is changing, so we’re changing also. We’ll be able to do more things because old buildings, as far as the wiring, can only take so much,” Lebo said. “The air-conditioning, the technology and the atmosphere with the bright colors [will be nice changes]. And safety for kids is the one major thing. We need to make sure our kids are safe in this world.” Arlington Julie Innis, principal of Arlington Elementary School, said she and her staff are “excited” to be in the new building after watching construction for almost two years. “I think it is very important to have an environment that is conducive to learning,” Innis said. “We’ll be handicap accessible, and [the building will have] air-conditioning and updated technology wiring. We’ll have two sections of every grade level instead of one.” ARLINGTON PARENT/STUDENT REACTION One of the main questions surrounding the school is what will become of the old building. Priscilla and Norman Winkler have both been officers of the Arlington Alumni Association and they both worked to get signatures to build a new school. While Winkler said the old school is special, she said it should be torn down, mostly for monetary reasons. She said she wouldn’t want to see it turned into apartments or anything like that because an old building would “drag down the community.” “It does have a good gym,” Winkler said, “but the township has no funds to maintain the gym. It would have to have heating because the heating is clear in the other building. It would have to have two new bathroom facilities because they’re beyond terrible [now]. You’d have to have somebody responsible for it, and we just don’t have the money in the community to do that.” Wagner said, “[The school] was pretty special to me. A lot of people around here, we enjoyed going there. The new one had to be done because the old one was getting to where it wasn’t safe.” Milroy Like Innis, Lebo said she is looking forward to a fresh start for the elementary school in the new building. “[The teachers] are excited, and I know the kids are going to be excited. I can hardly wait to see their faces,” Lebo said. MILROY PARENT/STUDENT REACTION As for the old building, it’s unclear what will be its fate. Dr. Bob Jackman, a 1961 Milroy graduate, is on the committee that is studying possibilities for the old building. “[We’re] looking to see if we can do something with it and spend some money to get a study done to see if it’s feasible to even keep [the building]. That’s a work in progress and we’re working very hard. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t happen, so be it,” Jackman said. “I can say that we did our best.” Lebo called the new school “a shot in the arm” for Milroy because she anticipates community growth to result from it. She said it had been a “dream” for a while that had finally come true. “This new school is pretty important to the community,” Jackman said. “There was a group of citizens that started a group back in 1988 to save our school in Milroy. And this whole initiative grew from that to finally get a school board that would look at it and vote on it and then follow through with what they had said. I think we owe a great deal of gratitude to the school board, the administration and to the citizens of this county because these two new schools are going to help save these great communities. There’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of dedicated individuals who worked very hard to get these schools done.” For more on Rush County’s two new elementary schools see Section B of today’s Rushville Republican.