East Grays Harbor High School in Elma may look the same from the outside, but the inside has been renovated and the building has a “new school” feel.

The $5,117 in renovations got underway in June and recently have been completed by the Elma School District maintenance department. Renovations at the school included replacing the curtain separating the school’s two classrooms with an actual wall. The addition not only helps the school’s operations, but also laid ground for the building’s transformation from a somewhat-open floor plan to one with walls and offices.

“We’re very excited about it,” said principal Julie Crawford. “It’s made a great difference for our kids to be able to sit in a classroom and not necessarily hear everything that’s going on in another classroom or get distracted by someone going to the bathroom. It feels like a new building.”

The addition of the wall not only increases privacy for classes within the school but also allowed for increased privacy by way of new principal and counselor’s offices. Aside from giving the principal and counselor more room to work, these offices may make the process of seeing the counselor or principal less stressful for students.

“This was our counselor’s office, it’s now the science storage room,” Crawford said, referencing a small room tucked away in the back of one of the school’s two classrooms. “This is where our counselor sat, inside of another classroom. If you went in to see the counselor everybody knew you went in to see the counselor. There was no privacy.”

There are currently more than 50 students enrolled at East Grays Harbor High School. Crawford said she hopes other students will hear positive things about the renovations and the impact it has had on the climate at the school.

Outside of the new principal’s office is a waiting area and work station where students can use computers and work independently, while Crawford and other staff will be close by to answer any questions.

“Most of them really like it, particularly those who are bothered by a lot of noise,” Crawford said. “Not having to hear the other classroom going on is really nice. A few of them kind of miss the old school, but they like it, and they’ve become very used to it very fast.”

Linda Meister has been teaching at the school for 16 years and believes the renovations are “long overdue.”

“It’s much better for the kids and the teachers,” Meister said. “We had too many distractions before with one big open building. It was just a constant movement of kids going somewhere. With our population of kids, that’s distracting.”

A.J. Hamilton is a junior at East Grays Harbor High School. He said he thinks the building is much improved from last year.

“I didn’t like it last year because you could her all the noises going on,” Hamilton said. “The counselor’s office is personally my favorite part, I feel like they did a great job. My grades are better than they were last year because it’s easier to focus.”

Jeff Sowers has been teaching at the school for 18 years and agrees that the improvements could go a long way in preparing and educating students.

“It’s a big improvement for us for the building as a whole,” Sowers said. “It allows more things to go on in the same space. For the overall program, it’s definitely an improvement.”