Wadsworth City Schools held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 14 to officially open the new intermediate building, now called Wadsworth Intermediate School or WIS. The ceremony started with Dr. Andrew Hill, Wadsworth City Schools superintendent, welcoming everyone in attendance to the new building.

The new building was designed with many large windows to allow natural light, along with the idea to create a more cohesive and cooperative learning style, in contrast to the Central Intermediate School, which was separated into multiple floors.

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Photo by Liz Allen

Brandon Cobb explains how the building concepts came to be. He did this in front of the audience at WIS before cutting the ribbon.

“CIS was so disjointed because the three floors, all over the place, now we have academic wings,” said Steve Moore, the assistant superintendent of Wadsworth City Schools. “The floors [have] a lot of uniqueness to them, but each classroom is the same; it is the same size, it’s got the same features. So it’s got a lot of positives because of the similarity—for togetherness.”

Both the fifth and sixth grade wings have cubbies, lockers, and space for cooperative learning. While the fifth grade wing is on one side of the building, the sixth grade wing is on the other side of the building. On the ground floor is the music wing, the gymnasium, cafeteria, and art room. 

“Probably the art room, I’ve seen how big it is, and it looks nice,” said Olivia Riley, an upcoming sixth grader, when asked what she was most excited about.

Her sister, McKenna Riley, also an upcoming sixth grader, said she was excited about having a bigger choir room. But both were glad to leave the old building for the new building.

“The air conditioning didn’t really work,” said McKenna Riley.

WIS is still working on its auditorium, but the plan is to have 1,000 seats, which is a little bigger than the high school’s auditorium.

“The open cafeteria area that’s connected to the music [room] and to the gymnasium… is going to be a great meeting place, not only for the students and the teachers but for the community as a whole when the auditorium opens in November and December and we can have the community in for events,” said Julie Batey, a member on the Wadsworth Board of Education.

The first day for the new school will be on Aug. 21.