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It was a busy summer at Chelsea Middle School with several projects that were completed before students returned for their first day. (Contributed)

By LEAH INGRAM EAGLE | Special to the Reporter

CHELSEA – It was a busy summer at Chelsea Middle School with several projects that were completed before students returned for their first day.

Since returning to ChMS in 2021 for her second tenure, Principal Cynthia Cruce has been hard at work to make many improvements, both internally and externally, to the decades-old school building.

Cruce has been with Shelby County Schools since 1999 and has worked at Oak Mountain Middle and Oak Mountain High along with a prior term at Chelsea Middle.

“This is the original school in Chelsea,” Cruce said. “The original K-12 school was here. We have a lot of people in this building that went to school here, and their kids went to school here. I’ve got teachers who were students here when I was assistant principal in 2012. It’s a testament that people want to come back to their community.”

Cruce said due to the building’s age, it has to be maintained and kept up. She views it through the lens of what she would want for her own children.

“We’re not getting a new school,” Cruce said. “So what little things can I do to improve the building?”

The answer is quite a lot. The first being a school-wide painting project.

Upon her return to ChMS in 2021, Cruce said the whole building needed to be painted. With assistance from the city of Chelsea, Shelby County Board of Education and parent donations, painting began in the sixth grade building and within a year, it was completely repainted.

Over the summer, the rest of the building was repainted, including all hallways in the seventh and eighth grade building, with funds from the PTO, a grant from the city of Chelsea and assistance from workers with the SCBOE.

Now, the entire facility has been repainted including walls, railings, trim and more.

“We were able to partner with Oak Crest Construction for a large portion of the painting,” Cruce said. “Then our fantastic six-person custodial staff painted a few additional spaces and much of the trim and railings. I have a spreadsheet of what rooms were painted and have them on a three year rotation for paint and touch ups.”

In July, Church of the Highlands held a serve day at Chelsea Middle where volunteers cleaned up outside areas at the front of the school and the PTO has a plan of how to keep it up.

“It gets overwhelming with 28 acres—that’s a lot to keep up,” Cruce said. “I can’t build a new school, but I can help put things in the school to get it updated.”

Last school year, a canopy was installed at the bus pickup/dropoff at the front of the school, a project funded by the SCBOE. Another completed project was new flooring and furniture in the front office area and counseling office.

“I want parents to see when they’re coming into our offices that it doesn’t look outdated,” Cruce said. “We’ve also added television screens in the hallways featuring announcements and important information. We put one in the front hallway by the office and now have others in the sixth grade building, eighth grade hallway and the gym lobby.

Upgrades have also been made outside. When the visitor’s bleachers were removed from Chelsea High School, they were brought to the middle school to be used there. The next project will be to patch and seal coat the track.

The SGA offered to do a project with their funds, and purchased new furniture– picnic benches and tables–for the outdoor courtyards.

Other recent projects include:

• All classrooms now have a ViewSonic interactive white board
• An update of the family and consumer science room that included new cabinets, new flooring and new tables
• A new sound system with Bluetooth capability installed in the cafeteria
• A sound system upgrade and screen in the gym
• An updated camera system throughout the school

“There are a lot of things that have been done as a partnership with the city of Chelsea and the county,” Cruce said. “We can all work together.”

Cruce was ready and excited for the first day on Aug. 8.

“I love the new beginnings of seeing kids come back to school,” she said. “Our job is to set our kids up for the future. I’m very proud of our teachers. We’ve done really well academically. That’s a testament to our staff.”

Cruce added that ChMS was the only middle school in Shelby County that had “A” on the school report card last year.

For the next project, Cruce has plans for new graphics and mascots to be placed in the lunchroom and on the gym doors. She said it’s something that will give the school an updated look.

“When people come into the building, they come into the office, gym and potentially the cafeteria,” she said. “We’re trying to make sure those spaces are as welcoming as we can. It’s a well-loved building, and we want to maintain it the best we can.”

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