LCSC shows off new Intermediate School during open house

Logansport Intermediate School filled with happy fifth and sixth graders Thursday evening during the school’s open house.

The students could be overheard telling their parents about the school’s STEM room and seen dragging their parents by the hand to their classrooms so they could meet their teachers.

Principal Michael Miller stood in the entrance hallway, a smile on his face as he greeted parents and teased his students.

The start of the 2023-24 school year marks the first time the new school, located at 1600 Chase Rd., has been full of students. It opened in January of this year but only for sixth graders. During that time, work continued on the fifth-grade classrooms and the pre-kindergarten wing.

“It’s been a great start to the year,” said Miller. “We were really excited to get back and obviously start out new and get our fifth and sixth graders all together in one building.”

There are nearly 700 fifth and sixth graders and approximately 150 preschoolers at the school.

“(We) are so thankful that we have the building fully operational and meeting the needs of our students,” said Logansport Community School Corporation superintendent Michele Starkey.

Miller said a lot of thought went into planning the building. When you walk in, the foyer heads directly to a video screen where daily messages can be posted. Classrooms are equipped with chairs and tables that can be easily moved around and organized into different patterns depending on the needs of the lesson.

One teacher had her tables organized in groups of four while another arranged them in a semi-circle.

“How rooms can be set up for flexible spaces for our kids to allow them to collaborate has been a great thing,” Miller said.

Starkey said the new environment would open many opportunities for students in both curriculum and extra curricular areas.

Among the many opportunities for the students are elective classes such as band and choir. There’s also honors programming, intervention support for students who need it, dual language learning, computer science, a STEM Makers Space (with 3D printers), athletics and clubs.

“Kids have a great opportunity in Logansport schools as they come to the intermediate level to get a good sample of the many things they are going to experience as they progress through the junior high and high school as well.”

Construction began in 2021, but plans for the new school go back as far as 2013. Planning included a trip to Charlotte to look at classroom options and talking with teachers to learn what they most needed in their classroom.

Students do change classrooms throughout the day but never stray far from their homeroom. The set up was planned so that the students could get used to a junior high and high school setting, but the stress of hurrying from one end of the building to the other between classes has been alleviated. While the building is large it’s laid out in almost a complete circle, making it very easy to maneuver.

“It’s been really good for us to be that bridge between a traditional elementary classroom and preparing them for junior high or the high school model,” he said. “You see that combination of a lot of things that are elementary but also more of what people would be used to at the junior high level. Allowing kids to get out of that general education classroom with one teacher and going through a seven-period day, switching from class to class, having different teachers throughout the day is something we are really doing here.”

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