EH Schools ready for a district-wide makeover
East Holmes School District built a new bus garage and central office in 2024. The new year will bring more improvements to all the district’s buildings, which will see each classroom in every school getting a fresh look.
For East Holmes Schools, 2025 will be about brightening up the classrooms of staff and students to make the educational process as fun as possible.
As the district moves into 2025, it has pledged to refresh each of its classrooms in its schools.
“As we head into 2025, we are very excited about a number of things, both in the classroom and as we specifically work on our classroom renovation project,” East Holmes Schools Superintendent Erik Beun said.
Plenty of planning is already going into the classroom refreshing project that Beun said is a five-year plan, but the district would like to see it all take place within a three-year window beginning in 2025.
“It really started in 2024,” Beun said.
In order to work toward a school-wide refresh project that would be compelling for the entire community, the district has put a survey on its website asking for input as to what the community would like to see happen as the district focuses on refreshing its schools.
The input on the form will help guide the district’s decisions on design, color schemes and furniture for upcoming updates, with a goal of creating classrooms that foster a dynamic learning environment for students and staff while reflecting the community’s mission and values.
Beun said with all the major rebuilding work done on each of the district’s school buildings, East Holmes has funds intentionally set aside for this project, created through financial planning made possible to support these improvements without requiring a ballot measure.
“We’re excited about giving a refresh to all 140 of our district classrooms,” Beun said. “That scope is still getting fine-tuned but will include things like flooring, new paint, lighting, furniture and much more.”
He said East Holmes is unique in that it centers around several smaller community schools along with the high school and middle school. He said the district is filled with generational families who have lived in the community for decades and tend not to move away. Thus, for parents and grandparents, many of the schools appear very similar as to when they went to school there.
“That’s not a bad thing, but our buildings are in good shape physically, which allows us to pursue this update project beginning next year,” Beun said. “Our district is small community schools, and we’re proud of that. This is our way of investing back into our communities.”
The past year saw a major commitment to bringing the district closer together through the acquisition of a new building across from the high school that became the school’s new central office and bus garage.
“That took a lot of planning, but it was a huge part of our commitment to improving our school district,” Beun said.
Beun also said as far as curriculum goes, much of the groundwork and advancements have taken place over the past five years. He said the district will continue to evaluate each aspect of the curriculum including new language arts and reading curriculum, especially in the elementary schools.
“We’re excited about the direction of our district and the way we are able to serve kids and help them stay on track in the way they are learning and growing,” Beun said.