Although the tables and chairs are tiny and everything is scaled for 4- and 5-year-olds, there’s nothing small about Little Pearl Elementary School. The long-awaited pre-kindergarten and kindergarten elementary early childhood education center will open for teachers on Monday with students entering the doors for the first time Tuesday.

Dr. April Whitfield, the school’s principal, has been waiting for this moment for months. Although she has been located at Riverside Elementary with the faculty and students, the move will help solidify the sense of community for the school and its 15 faculty members.

Whitfield, who previously was assistant principal at Cypress Cove Elementary, said she will not have an assistant principal but will have a Technical Resource Teacher to assist in the new school’s beginnings.

LITTLE PEARL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Students already have uniforms with their logo, a mollusk holding two pearls. The girl pearl, complete with bow, is aptly named Pearl, while the boy pearl is named River.

The $8 million state-of-the-art school is color coded for students. Although the classrooms have numbers, they also are distinctively painted in bright, cheerful colors, such as red, green or blue.

The tiled hallway features two stripes, one on each side, colored differently for the convenience of students. Students will follow the tiles in one direction while students on the other side will walk the opposite direction.

Instead of a cafetorium, the school has a separate auditorium or multi-purpose room with a stage complete with lighting and a sound system. The cafeteria contains amenities such as a kid-sized serving platform for a salad bar and pint-size tables with attached seats. It can seat 288 students.

Whitfield said although the children will need a few days to readjust to the new setting, they are also excited about the move.

“On Tuesday and Wednesday, our goal will be to help the children learn about the new school,” she said.

On Thursday, she will take the stage in the new auditorium for the first time at morning assembly.

“I know what their reaction will be,” said Whitfield. “The sound system is so loud, the students will all look up at the speakers in the middle of the ceiling. That’s what we did on our walk through.”

Every three classrooms will have a porch area for play, reading outside, hopscotch or whatever the teacher wants to do for a covered outside activity. In addition, the playground area will have built-in sandboxes. Whitfield said the playground equipment has been selected, and bids are being considered.

Fencing is not completed around the playground but will extend to the tree line, said Cameron Tipton, lead supervisor for construction for the St. Tammany Parish School Board. The land area in the back of the school contains enough ground for future expansion, if needed.

The school is situated on 9.68 acres. A central kitchen area in the hallway is available when teachers want to utilize it as part of class. For example, a teacher could make gingerbread cookies and read the story of the gingerbread man.

The school will open with about 150 students who have all been housed at Riverside Elementary. The extra classrooms available will house an art/music room and a library/computer room. Two rooms will be empty. Each of the 16 classrooms will contain a large window opening into the hallway to allow for observation of the class without disturbance. Each classroom will also have its own bathroom and sink area for students.

The teachers’ workroom in the administration wing will contain ample space for teachers, including their own teacher-sized cubbies. A lounge area will contain a small kitchen facility and lunch area.

The times for the new school will allow parents to drop off at Little Pearl then continue to Riverside with older elementary students. Drop off will begin at 7:40 a.m. with the bell at 8:08 a.m. Dismissal will be at 3:21 p.m. The earlier drop-off time will also allow the 80 children who regularly eat breakfast at the school the time to do so.

Tipton said the cost of the school does not include the cost of the land or furnishings, only things that are built-in such as bathrooms, built-in shelving and so forth.

Verges Rome was the architectural firm that designed the school, and Polk Construction was the contractor for the 42,124-square-foot facility.