Almira opens its new school

When it burned down on Oct. 12, 2021, Almira's school was so completely destroyed that only about 33 bricks of the old red-brick school could be salvaged.

Those are now encased in concrete outside the brand-new school the community opened Aug. 31 for an open house and celebration by the community.

They filled the new multi-purpose room to overflowing, necessitating moving the staff from the side of the new foldout bleachers to up onto the new stage, where the music and drama teachers plan to collaborate on a production sometime this year.

Before the 4 p.m. opening, teachers were busy readying their rooms illuminated with light from large windows. Cleaners were busy dusting and vacuuming a new gym. About 100 workers an hour earlier had been scurrying around still working. Five days to go until school started and many people said they had a lot to get done yet.

But community members streaming in to see the new place where generations to come will begin their education seemed dazzled by the spacious halls and rooms.

It had taken 22 months to build. That had to be some kind of record, Project Manager Gene Sementi said, noting it takes an average of three years to conceive, plan, revise, design and build a new school these days.

But Almira didn't have a school at all, leading some to worry after the fire that the very small town would be told to bus their kids in kindergarten through eighth grades elsewhere.

Nobody in Olympia thought so, according to officials from the state capital attending last week. The immediate question from lawmakers and agency leaders was not whether but how to build Almira a new school.

They lined up outside the school as the ribbon was cut to see the fruits of their collaboration: a $33 million investment Sementi said was about half paid for by insurance and half by state funds and donors - about 200 of them listed on posters in the school. Most were individuals or couples. Some were companies or foundations, universities, and schools from near and far. When Mallory Isaac and Savanah Munson, the president and vice president of the student body spoke briefly, then read the lists of donors, it took nearly 10 minutes.

The audience in the multipurpose room listened intently for over an hour as the tale was told of how the new school came to be before heading into the halls and classrooms to visit and marvel.

A bronze plaque affixed to concrete outside declares, in part, "The strength, resilience, and pride of our students, staff and community during this loss is a testament to new beginnings and this school."