BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS OWNER
For a short tour of the new 10,000 square foot facility on the campus of Stanhope Elmore High School, click https://www.facebook.com/sarah.dawn.56884/videos/508392453761045
The Elmore County School Board held their Tuesday meeting on the campus of Stanhope Elmore High School, but it wasn’t just business as usual. Attendees had the chance to get a first look at the new Performing Arts Education Building that recently finished construction.
Principal Ewell Fuller said “I am so proud of the efforts on behalf of the School Board and Mr. Richard Dennis for making this happen. Not only is this a band room but it is a morale booster and it is going to feed directly into our performing arts program. Mr. Dennis is huge on that and so am I.”
SEHS Band Director Wesley Morris had a hard time containing his enthusiasm. As a former SEHS student and band member, he knows how far this program has come since he walked the halls as a younger man.
“We received $1 million in grant money,” he told the audience. But a lot more went into it, including other funding and grants. “We have about $50,000 in new instruments. In the past three years we have “32,000 from the State Board of Education. Some of these things we have never owned before…like an electric xylophone.”
Other features will be guitar room, which could also offer classes to the public as well as students.
The building boasts a large band room, choral room, individual offices, plenty of storage, and one room dedicated to the brand new uniforms SEHS received last years through generous donations and fundraisers. There is also a laundry room for those uniforms, which Morris said will come in very handy.
Within the building is a large piano lab, sporting 50 pianos.
“There are not very many places that have access to a piano lab because it is very expensive. But as we designed the building we put this in. We have students who want to go on and do music education. If they do not have a facility at the piano, they really get hung up in that education. We have had such a huge response from students on campus. But we have also heard from adults. So we are working on an after school program to bring in adults and younger children so we can teach in a classroom setting so that we can inspire those young pianists. If you are looking for a pianist, they are hard to find and they are very expensive. This is a very expensive room, but it is showing off, let me tell you.”
In the Choral Department room, Morris said, “Before (the new facility was built) we shared the band room. This is really nice in case you do not know where we came from. Boy, I could tell you some stories.”
Morris was speaking of the old facilities that were cramped, to say the least. Those areas of the school are now being renovated, and will be used by the Theatre Department. We will have more on that in a future article.
Morris showed off the Grand Piano in the Choral room. “The Grand Piano is actually 100 years old. It has been through some things but it is living with us now and it is a great instrument for our program. Not having to purchase this really helped out so we could do other things.”
Will Boartfield is the band director for Millbrook Middle School and said he is so thankful for this state-of-the-art facility that area students will be able to use for years to come. The SEHS and MMS bands often practice and perform together. The benefits of this new building will be far reaching, indeed, he said with a big smile.
In the music room Boartfield showed shelves of music, well-marked, that was organized by many hours of work. Rather than having to shuffle through stacks of music, it will now be easily accessible in one spot.
“This new facility is incredible,” Principal Fuller said. “I want to thank everyone who helped make this happen.”
Officials agreed the new facility is far and away the best in this area, and it would be hard to find anything comparable nearby. They said while it was a long time coming, and took an extraordinary amount of planning and funding, the benefits will far outweigh the cost for years to come.
The new building connects to the back of the 600 building. The location makes access much easier and the ability to move equipment “a dream” Boartfield said. A roll-up door will allow instruments and students to be moved quickly, rather than moved around the building. The practice field is nearby, and it is now a much quicker trip for the band to walk to Foshee-Henderson Stadium for performances.
