Mmmm … New School Smell

There’s nothing better than new school smell. It’s better than pulling off the top of a magic marker and sticking the felt tip deliciously close to your nose and taking in a big honking whiff. It’s better than when you take in that first rush of escaping air from a pressurized tube of tennis balls.
New car smell is nice, but it’s no comparison.
St. Andrews School of Math and Science (SASMS) Principal Amy Cario says the media center is the place that has the highest concentration of new school smell.
Is it the smell of young minds taking on new ideas? Is the fertile soil of the adjoining laptop study room? Is it …
“No, it’s the carpet, and the glue that holds it down,” says Cario, walking into the library, causing the automatic lights to kick on. She adds that the new school smell has faded in the new stuffed furniture dotting the library’s floor plan three weeks into the new school year.
Last Friday, the cafeteria during fourth lunch smells like chicken sandwiches and sweet potato fries. That’s because the magnet K-5 school is also home to a fresh food initiative, so the meal doesn’t smell like carpet or the glue that holds it down.
About the only thing that does stink is CCSD director of capital programs Jeff Borowy’s left arm. Outside on the Astroturf covered upper-grades playground, Borowy, a Cleveland Browns fan, hoists lame duck after lame duck footballs to hopeful fifth grade receivers.
Borowy’s final throw was perfect, but he’d lost the trust of his receiver, who quit on the route that three years ago would have led into a mucky, muddy mess. Today, it’s a verdant green, albeit a somewhat artificial one.
SASMS two years-long construction was finished under Borowy’s leadership, having taken over for the now-retired Bill Lewis last school year. At 105,000 square feet, the school is now home to 750 students — quite a jump from when the school opened in 1950 with only 150 students.
Total cost to tear down the former school and build the new one was just over $33 million, which Borowy says was close to the district new school average of $318 a square foot.
What really doesn’t stink is the back left second-floor classroom, with a panoramic view of the school’s two playgrounds and the marsh. Cario said some wrangling went on in the teachers’ lounge as to who would get that vista.
The teacher who scored that room mimes winning an arm-wrestling match as her explanation while she leads her class down the hall, single file, close to the wall, hands clasped in front.
At the other end of the same second-floor hall is the home of Pebbles the hedgehog, the school’s official pet. Hedgehogs, an abnormally fastidious animal according to the Internet, have no discernible smell.
But, be warned, the spiny critter does let out a quick “huff” of air when approached by a stranger wanting to pet her for the first time. Even when Pebbles does this, there’s no discernible scent of cat food or her treat, mealworms, in the air.
Her quills look more sinister than they are, according to the school’s lead STEM teacher Jennifer Wood, who likens touching their tips to picking up a sweetgum tree’s fallen ball in the yard.
Two 4th graders exude the sweet smell of success as they stroll the halls wearing, of all things, superhero capes. “We get to wear the capes when we met behavior goals for the week in our class,” says one adorable towheaded girl.
Cario takes the moment to make up for a mistake she made earlier in the day, reminding the girls not to “fly” up and down the steps, but rather to walk at a safe pace.
What Cario likes the most about her new school, is that nearly every nook and cranny can be utilized as a learning space. That includes the traditional classrooms, some replete with two-way mirrors so parents and staff can watch kids without intrusion, as well as labs where kids can design, plan, and build.
Thirteen years ago, parents used to literally camp out in line overnight for days at a time for a chance for their out of constituent district child to have a shot at getting a space in the magnet school.
On Friday, Oct. 14, Cario will throw open the school’s doors for tours for those in the community. But, expecting a lot of interest in what replaced the district’s oldest school, those interested will have to call ahead to sign up for a limited number of tours.
About the only smell that will still be missing by then is the smell of flowers and other plants in the schools second-floor outside balcony garden. “It’s just too hot to plant right now; we’re going to wait until it cools down more before we focus on the garden,” says Cario.