After several delays, Miller Middle School’s much-anticipated grand opening took place on Tuesday, when Durango community members were invited to explore the new building.
The event is the culmination of a transition marked by a number of unexpected road blocks.
“This was not your average school opening,” said Karla Sluis, spokeswoman for Durango School District 9-R. “It took a lot of resilience, a lot of grit, and a lot of patience on everyone’s behalf to make it happen.”
Students and faculty were meant to move into the new space at the start of the 2024 school year, but it was postponed after a fire damaged key electrical components at the construction site in June. Students were temporarily relocated to Durango High School before finally moving into their new home on Sept. 24, Sluis said.
“Going from the high school to here was like going from black-and-white to color,” said Dory Daniel, Miller’s Spanish teacher.
“We have more space to breathe now; it was crammed in the high school,” said eighth grader Rebekah Qyale.
The grand opening, originally scheduled for Oct. 25, was postponed after the death of a Miller student, Sluis said. She was referring to the death of Samuel Ross, 12, who was allegedly stabbed to death Oct. 24 by his older brother, Issac Lawrence, 16.
Sluis said she wants people to take away a sense of pride from Tuesday grand opening. Putting some distance between construction delays and a student’s death was necessary to make the grand opening as meaningful as possible, she said.
The grand opening commenced at 5:30 p.m. with a performance from the school’s orchestra. Speeches and a ribbon-cutting followed, and then guests were let loose to explore the school.
The speeches were filled with gratitude for the community, highlighting how the project embodied the spirit of the proverb, “It takes a village,” while keeping the primary beneficiaries – the students – at the forefront.
The amount of input given by the community and faculty during the renovation made the project a “true collective effort,” said Miller Middle School Principal Vernadette Norman.
A design team composed of community members, students and faculty was involved in all stages of the process, said 9-R Superintendent Karen Cheser.
A nonnegotiable part of the design was the inclusion of collaborative spaces, Cheser said.
The spaces have been woven throughout the design of the building in the form of “learning pods.” The pods are composed of several classrooms with large doorways and windows that open into the pod’s collaboration area.
“We've had a lot of choice in designing the classrooms and designing the pods,” said Alex Guido, an eighth grader at MMS. The new, movable furniture allows the students to configure their classrooms.
The new found agency students have over their learning environments have had a positive impact on their classroom experience, Qyale said. It has made it easier to remain focused on the task at hand, she said.
“Durango’s kids deserve this,” Cheser said.
It's not just the students who are observing the benefits of the new space.
Mary Gumser, a Miller faculty member, said the whole community can take pride the new building.
“It's exciting to walk in everyday and see such an open space,” she said. “It gives the school a really welcoming feel that, I believe, is beneficial to the students.”
Construction on the new athletic fields is still happening on the other side of the building and is projected to finish this summer.
The project had a budget of $55 million, and voters agreed to a new bond in 2024 that may provide the school with additional funds.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
