24 Oct 2016 A new school for Ida Burns Elementary

by Katie Kemp
Mike Kemp photos

For the last 60 years, a flat-roofed red brick building faced Donaghey Avenue in Conway, and thousands of elementary students laid the foundations for their educations inside its walls. Ida Burns Elementary School has been a point of pride for its students, teachers and surrounding community.

The beginning of the 2016-17 academic year signaled a new chapter for the school; where once there was an aging, cramped building now stands a beautiful, brand new version of Ida Burns Elementary.

The original school building welcomed its first elementary students in the fall of 1956. In recent years, it became more and more apparent that the school was in need of renovation. The hallways of the old building were narrow, and the hall ceilings were nearly low enough to touch. Additionally, old plumbing systems began to fail as they aged.

As other elementary schools were built and remodeled, anxiety arose that Ida Burns would not keep its current location. The school proudly boasts itself as a “neighborhood school,” with its location on a main street in Conway with many students living close enough to walk to school.

Principal Cindy Thacker had some concerns, including the possibility that the school would be built at a different location, and Ida Burns’ current students would be moved there.

“I was concerned that this building might be turned into something (different),” said Thacker. “So we were very excited to know that they were going to build a new school, but also keep it here as a neighborhood school.”

The Conway School District has built two new elementary schools in the last 10 years and remodeled several of its existing elementary campuses, but the project at Ida Burns was unique in that while a large portion of the new school was built from the ground up, two of the school’s existing wings were kept and remodeled. Construction began in the spring of 2015, and students eagerly watched out of classroom windows as their new school began to take form.

As the new building took shape and neared completion, walls in the wings to be kept were knocked down so they could be connected to the new building.

“They broke a wall down to create a door and create that hallway . . . It was right across from my office,” said Tami Burcham, assistant principal at Ida Burns. “Some of the teachers poked their heads down the hall like, ‘Is everything OK? What’s going on here?’ and I was like, ‘Bring your kids down here and look!’”

As a wall in the old building went down, students and teachers were able to get a taste of what their new school would be like and how the new would connect to the old. “The kids were just giddy,” said Burcham.

Though excitement is abounding over the new school, nostalgia ran deep when the community said goodbye to the old building.

“There was this one little boy in particular that I felt so sorry for the last day of school,” Thacker said. “He was crying, and I went up to him and asked him why he was crying, and he said, ‘This school is going to be gone!’” Thacker was quick to explain that though the old building would be gone, Ida Burns would still be there.

To let the community say goodbye, the school held a “memory walk-through” for former students, teachers and the community to walk the halls, look at old yearbooks and reminisce about the memories made there. People came from all across the state and even out of state to say goodbye to the building.

“It was mind blowing how many people came to pay respects, so to speak, to the building that was going to be gone,” said Burcham. “The community was very sentimental about the demolition of the old part, but then also thrilled that we get to stay in this area.”

As the old building was demolished at the end of the 2015-16 school year, the sentiments over the old were easily overshadowed by the excitement for what was to come.

“It’s bittersweet. You think, ‘Oh, I’ve been in this building for so many years, and it’s going to be gone,’” said Thacker. “But then, how exciting! I just feel like every time I turn around, it’s unbelievable how this facility is so nice.”

The new building solves several problems that arose in the old building. The hallways are now spacious enough for two classrooms to file down both sides. The new cafeteria is larger, where crowding and difficulty directing lines were common previously. Spaces new to the school include a physical education facility that doubles as a safe room, a fireproof vault for record and document storage and a front office entry with increased security measures.

Ida Burns is also the first elementary school in the Conway school district to have a two-story school building.

Throughout the planning and building process, the cooperation and helpfulness of everyone involved made for a smooth transition.

“All of the construction workers, all of the custodians, everybody has been so nice,” said Burcham. “They have been just pleasant and accommodating and helpful, and I’ve really been impressed with that.”

Though a new building means many changes for Ida Burns, Thacker stresses that the community remains the same. “Ida Burns is still here . . . even though we’ve got a new building.”