UNION SQUARE — Clinton School for Writers and Artists welcomed students on the first day of school in its brand new building on Wednesday.
The popular middle school moved from its home in Chelsea to a new building at 10 E. 15th St. and opened to students to the first time this year after two years of construction.
“I’m nervous and excited, just like them,” said the school's principal Jonathan Levin, who is entering his fifth year running the school.
The Clinton School was approved to expand its coveted middle school program into a sixth to 12th grade program at the new building in 2013, after it scored a 98 on its 2012-2013 progress report — higher than any other middle school in the city that year.
This year the school began accepting new sixth and ninth graders and will add another high school grade each year.
The new building, and the amenities in it, will offer access to modern technology like smart boards that will help to round out the focus on creative arts from the start of middle school to the end of high school, Levin said while greeting students and shaking parents' hands outside the school on Wednesday.
“The biggest improvement is being able to provide our students with technologies like Promethean boards and fast wifi,” he said. “It’s also huge that students will be able to stay with us the whole time from sixth to 12th grade.”
Students buzzed with a nervous energy as they crowded around the entrance to the new school on Wednesday morning, hugging friends and dodging kisses from parents.
A pair of boys heading into their first day of eighth grade paused to express their feelings on the new school building.
"I'm overcome!" said Eli Klein, pausing and eventually giving up on specifying what feeling had overcome him. "I really like the new building."
