Bixby Schools Celebrates Grand Opening Of New Elementary School

A Green Country school district will welcome students into brand new classrooms in just a few weeks.

Bixby Public Schools hopes its overcrowding problem improves with the grand opening of its new school.

Bixby Public Schools had a seven percent growth rate last year and the district says, without Northeast Elementary and Intermediate, they would be flat out of classrooms. This year's growth rate is pacing at about four percent.

Five hundred students, from pre-Kindergarten through 6th grade, will start school at the new school in August. The school's capacity is 900 students, leaving room for some growth. The boundary for the new elementary and intermediate school begins at the Arkansas River on Mingo, so all homes east of Mingo feed into the school.

Six classrooms are also safe rooms with steel doors and windows that have a metal cage roll down during emergencies.

"We have six safe rooms, so I'm glad that Bixby Public Schools thought about the safety of our children, it makes me very proud to be part of the administration here," said Principal Jamie Milligan.

The new school is being paid for with the 2010 bond package, and is one of several new schools for Bixby. A new middle school opened last year, a 9th Grade Center is being built right now for the 2014-2015 school year, and the district is already looking at future expansions on the north and southwest sides of town.

Kids in Bixby will return to school on August 20.