- The new Vel Phillips Middle School welcomed its full student body for the first time Tuesday.
- Students and educators were excited about the "huge and beautiful" new building
- Vel Phillips's principal thinks the new school will offer Oshkosh students a top-of-the-line education, and get them excited to learn.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
After about a year-and-a half of construction…the New Vel Phillips Middle School is finally holding its first classes. Students and faculty are excited for the new school.
“I was like man this thing is huge and beautiful. That’s what comes to my head first, I was like wow,” Safari said.
Omega Safari and Maddie Schleicher are two of the about 800 students attending Vel Phillips. Both say they’re honored to be part of the first group to attend the school, and Maddie says she looks forward to exploring it for the next three years.
“I just feel very excited and very grateful that we get to be like the first group of kids to like fully go through all three years of middle school here,” said Schleicher.
“without a doubt my favorite part of the last week has been seeing kids as they walk in and seeing their reaction.”
Kristi Levy is Vel Phillips’s principal. She says the roughly 225,000 square foot building was designed to provide a top-of-the-line education to Oshkosh’s children.
“All of our student support services are available during the entire school day, every day of the week…there are recording studios, there is a tech and engineering lab that’s state of the art, there’s a culinary kitchen that’s state of the art,” Levy said.
She says students have been amazed by the new building and thinks the community’s investment in them, will make the children more excited to learn.
“when they come here they truly feel like, ‘I can’t believe someone built this for me,’ and our community did…that buy in from our community makes them feel very differently about walking in to school,” Levy said.
The Oshkosh School District will be holding a public dedication ceremony along with self-guided tours of the school on September 17. In Oshkosh, Seth Humeniuk, NBC 26.
