Students at Hill View Montessori School will enjoy an extended February vacation, not returning to school until Thursday, Feb. 25.
They may not recognize their classrooms at first and there's a chance they'll get lost going from the library to the gymnasium.
But that's not because they've been away for so long. It's because they're moving into a new school building.
Upper and lower elementary students will leave the century-old Bartlett School on Washington Street; middle schoolers no longer will occupy space in the Little Sprouts school on West Lowell Avenue, and kindergartners will abandon their rented space at Temple Emanu-El on Main Street.
For the first time since its founding in 2002, all the public charter school's students will occupy the same school building.
"At first, everybody was a little nervous for the change," said Andrea Kwiatkowski, personnel and operations director at Hill View. "Even when it's a good change, it can still make you sad, happy and nervous. But now that everything is getting moved in, it's starting to feel like home."
Olympia Moving and Storage of Watertown worked through Tuesday's snowstorm to move all the school's belongings to the 50,000-square-foot, two-story building at 45 Foundation Ave., in the Ward Hill Industrial Park.
Through grants, fundraising and savings, the school was able to buy the former home of International Totalizing Systems for $2.7 million, said Executive Director Janet Begin. The school did not receive money from the School Building Assistance Bureau, a state tax-funded aid program that helps public schools build or add space, Begin said.
Hill View Montessori was chartered for 296 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. In 2009, the school's charter was renewed by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for another five years.
"We've spent the past three summers trying to figure out where to put more kids," Begin said.
Hill View's first eighth-grade class will begin in the fall.
"This allows us to fully implement our program as it was designed," said Begin.
Hill View is a charter school open to any Haverhill student by lottery. Students are taught using the Montessori method, a program that encourages independent exploration and collaboration among students.
For example, the seventh-graders used to read to students at Little Sprouts, but now they can read to and tutor the kindergartners at Hill View.
"It helps that community feel," said Begin. "The young kids feel less intimidated by the big kids, and it helps the big kids with their behavior, because they know they're role models for the younger students."
The move will bring the school more than unity. Hill View can now offer amenities to its students that were unavailable before.
At the 25,000-square-foot Bartlett School there was no room for a gymnasium or art room, and the library was little more than a collection of bookshelves in an upstairs hallway.
The new school features all these spaces, plus a music room, cafeteria, conference room and storage.
"It's the little things that are so exciting," said Kwiatkowski, who has coordinated and overseen the renovations to the building and the move.
The new school boasts a sky light at the top of the winding, open main staircase, a welcoming front desk with a eye-catching painting behind it, brightly painted classrooms, well-lit hallways and many windows.
Outside, the school also has two new improvements on its previous spaces: Seven acres for fields and play space and plenty of parking.
For Begin, one of the biggest triumphs in the school's move has been the community effort involved. She noted that parents helped to design rooms and paint classrooms in their free time, people in the community donated goods and furniture for the new space, and local businesses and contractors helped in any way they could.
"It was a huge community effort, this whole building was," she said. "It was people pulling together to get everything done and make this building possible. It wouldn't have happened if the community hadn't come together. 'It takes a village,' that's what this school is all about. There are so many people who have given up their time because they want to make a difference in they believe in the mission of this school. It's pretty remarkable."
It also symbolizes a coming-of-age for the school in Begin's eyes, from a humble beginning of just 10 founders to an entire school community.
"We've gone through the charter, our MCAS scores have gone up, we've moved into a building of our own," she said. "It's like we're moving from that fledgling baby to a stable, stand-on-our-feet adult."
