It's been a busy summer for Maryville City Schools: remodeling, opening a new school, and reorganizing its grade structure.
Wednesday, students and teachers tested it out on their first day day back from summer vacation.
The grade reorganization centers around a new intermediate school, Coulter Grove. $26 million and four years later, Maryville City Schools has a state of the art facility to house 750 fourth through seventh graders.
"Kids are excited. They seem happy to be here, new building, new faces. We've had a really good first day back," said Mrs. Beth Gotcher, a 4th grade teacher.
The long awaited school is just one piece of the new grade reorganization puzzle for Maryville City Schools.
"One of the main reasons we had to look at this and decided to change to this structure was the overcrowding at Maryville High School," said Director of Schools, Stephanie Thompson.
Here is a look at how the grades have changed:
Maryville High School 10-12
Maryville Junior High School 8-9
Coulter Grove and Montgomery Ridge 4-7
Sam Houston, Foothills, and John Sevier Elementary K-3
"There wasn't a single school that wasn't affected," said Mrs. Gotcher.
It's a lot of change, but it's nothing Mrs. Gotcher is complaining about.
"We have Promethean Boards in every classroom, we have document cameras which we can use to project onto the Promethean Boards, we have computer labs set up, science labs set up," she said.
It's technology that they believe will help keep kids engaged.
If the first day is an indicator, so far it's working.
"One of the first things the kids asked. Do we get to go to the library today?" said Mrs. Gotcher.
The district closed Ft. Craig Elementary this year, but the director of schools says they may reopen it in the future if enrollment continues at its current pace.