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Happy 95th Birthday, F. A. March!
Monday, September 14th, 2009 Francis A. March Elementary School celebrated our 95th opening and the dedication of the newly renovated building. The enthusiastic EAHS Pep Band created the joyous mood and announced our start of this momentous day.
This event integrated the students into the meaning of the day as they belted out “Happy Birthday”, counted by fives to ninety-five, animated a MARCH acrostic, sang a teacher authored rap of life at March, reported on who Francis Andrew March was and sang our own Alma Mater!
Speakers, Mrs. Steinberg, Miss Fisher, Mrs. McGinley, Dr. Weiss (Lafayette President), Mayor Panto, Honorable Freeman and Mrs. Kinney (faculty)expressed appreciation for the planning, work and near completion of the building. Both a proclamation and citation were bestowed to Francis March and this day is now Francis March School Day in Easton! All participants who worked on this project were recognized, making a real connection for our students.
We ended this portion of the celebration with more music, fruit and cake.
Guided tours were then given throughout the day and evening. Our community came out in droves to walk these halls. To the delight of all, memories were shared and some friendships rekindled as 800 plus people walked through the entire F. A. March School.
What was seen was caring work over fourteen and one half months. Extensive internal work was completed to update the now 95 year old building to the 21st century. D’Huy Engineering did an excellent job of bringing forth the architectural vision of Architecture Furst in this edifice. Walter Brucker, the general contractor, worked with Wind Gap Electric and Worth Company along with some other sub groups to bring this place to completion. During this past year, Friends of March paid for the restoration of the museum quality portrait of Francis A. March while our local Blue Easel owner worked painstakingly over the restoration of the original frame to a superb end result.
The halls of Francis March Elementary School are gorgeous. Soft period lighting, high ceilings, comfortable air conditioning and heating and automatic units in the lavatories have welcomed our students back home. Classrooms have current technology initiatives, blackboards and whiteboards for use. The new addition includes an elevator, art room, kitchen and two classrooms. One other room was squeezed out of previous storage area in the existing building. The gymnasium and cafetorium have sound boards which allow for much more calm and even sounds. The ceiling in the cafetorium has been created to replicate the idea of the original stained glass and the floor in the gymnasium is a modern material of Mondo which is pliable, durable, high level flooring. The overall experience of walking in this building is one of grandeur and pride as the historic value has been maintained while fitting in with the current demands of educational institutions.
This spectacular day will be remembered fondly for a long time. Watch for other days we will be open for the public to view this building in the winter and spring!
A tremendous thank you is handed to our faculty family for the tedious work which all have done to get us to this point. Everyone has given up something to benefit from this move back to our home on the Hill. Many teachable moments have been captured for our students to learn as this day unfolded. Congratulations to a job well done, staff!
Our PTA welcomed our community back on this day as well with a rocking festival held on the evening of our opening. The streets were packed with happy participants in many games, activities, listening to music, and eating food. Thank you to those people in our PTA who made this event such a success.
Mrs. Steinberg
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