Birchwood Elementary School Update

            The new Birchwood Elementary School has acquired a new principal and has released its list of the first group of teachers hired for the new school. Construction on the new school is well underway and is scheduled to be completed in the fall in time for the start of the school year.

            Matthew Whitten has been announced as the new schools principal, and has been part of the project since January of this year. “It wasn’t a formal application process where I applied to become the Birchwood principal,” said Whitten. “It was more through conversations with district level administration and hearing about my vision and my interest in the Birchwood community.”

Whitten is currently the principal at Geneva Elementary, and though he doesn’t currently live in the Birchwood neighborhood, he stated that “it’s a really diverse group of students, and that is something I really would like to be a part of, where you have just a mix of people coming together.”

Another point of interest for Whitten in joining the Birchwood team was the fact that it’s going to be a whole new school. “If you are starting from scratch it feels like you have the opportunity to shape a vision as opposed to coming into a school that already has established traditions or an idea of what they’d like the school to look like,” said Whitten. “Now we get to come in fresh with a clean slate and start designing what we would like it to look like.”

While the school has not been completely staffed yet, ten teachers have been hired. Four are coming from Cordata Elementary, which is where the staff of the old Birchwood went as a group after the school was close. Anne Franzmann, Kelly Morgan, Matt Burns, and Carolyn Hinshaw are all coming from Cordata. Whitten is bringing Laura Britt and Sam Cousens with him from Geneva Elementary. Nina Bellow is coming from Parkview Elementary, Maggie Belisle is leaving Alderwood Elementary, Columbia Elementary is losing Shannon Pries, and Trisha Muirhead is coming from Carl Cozier Elementary.

The previous Birchwood Elementary school building was built in 1928, and was in need of updates and repairs. The school was originally slated for a remodel, but Kelly Morgan, a past and soon to be present teacher at Birchwood, said “After much research and input from parties regarding the historic building’s HVAC systems, plumbing, electrical and structural features it was clear there needed to be a change to meet the needs of our neighborhood students.”

The design for the school was created by Dykeman: Architecture, the company that also designed the new Whatcom Middle School. “Dykeman architects honored the feel of the historic Birchwood School by keeping the brick front façade…and keeping the building a one story building,” said Morgan. Another part of the old school that will be incorporated in the new model is the old entryway. “Inside the building one of the entrances to the library they’re going to install that historic entrance,” said Whitten. Stephanie Twiford of the Birchwood Neighborhood Association also added that “The district has done a good job of placing the school in the same foot print and trying to keep the same look, please the neighborhood.”

New aspects will also be included in the design of the new school. These improvements include “small group learning areas both indoors and some outside,” said Morgan. “It will be technologically advanced and classrooms have the flexibility to be used in different ways.” The school website also lists energy-efficient heating and ventilations systems as some additions to the new building. Despite the extensive construction in a largely residential area, Morgan said “I live just blocks from the school in Birchwood and it doesn’t seem to have been a problem traffic-wise in any way.”

According to the school website, this rebuild is being funded by a bond from 2006 as well as state construction assistance funding. Morgan said that “Our district leadership made sacrifices at the administrative level that made Birchwood schools and students a priority.”  Whitten explained that these funds were originally planned to support the rebuilding of the district office.

Whitten said that construction will be complete in late July or early August. There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony when the school is reopened, but no date is set. “Typically those happen a few weeks after the school year started so once the years up and rolling then there’ll be a ribbon cutting event and that’ll be kind of like the grand opening kickoff.”