Visit Buena Vista Elementary School (Auburn, Wash.) on a school day, and you will find more than 230 students eager to learn and eager to see the new school addition that will be added soon. Groundbreaking for the new addition was held on Oct. 14 with much fanfare by students, staff, local dignitaries and conference officers. The students marched in a parade to the site, and the local Pathfinder club raised the flag.
The project, valued at $1 million, will use volunteer labor to help keep the cost down to well below that amount. Students and parents have raised money through coin drives, bake sales, magazine sales and pledge drives. They initially funded a covered play area, plans which grew to instead be a second gymnasium for the upper grades along with two classrooms, rest rooms and an expanded kitchen for the school’s hot lunch program. There will also be a covered breezeway added to the facility. The new classrooms will help keep class sizes smaller so that quality education will continue.
Buena Vista is the oldest primary school in Auburn and has a wonderful history of educating students that dates back to its establishment in 1913 by dedicated Christian parents who wanted their children to learn about Jesus Christ in a school setting. The parents, teachers and supporters of Buena Vista continue to have that same vision of each child being taught about Jesus.
The school was relocated to its current site in 1919. This is the latest of numerous additions for this school. This addition will add 13,000 square feet, increasing the facility by 50 percent. Another addition is already being planned that will help enlarge office space as well as provide more room for additional services for the students.
Buena Vista students march in a parade to the groundbreaking location.
Buena Vista principal Gregg Walstrom (far left) and John Freedman (third from left), Washington Conference president, and other invited guests break ground for a new gymnasium.
