A Private Tour Of The New Charles H. Bullock Elementary School

It's a mixture of Barnes and Noble and a Mario Batali restaurant. That's how one might describe the new Charles H. Bullock Elementary School following a private tour with Principal Dr. Barbara Weller. Although the building is not yet open to the public, there's no doubt the children will be wowed when they walk through the door on the first day of school September 13.

There are motion-activated faucets and self-flushing toilets in the bathrooms. There are brand new easels and a kiln in the art studio. There is a stage and a full-sized basketball court — with adjustable backboards — in the shiny gymnasium. There is a cafeteria and kitchen complete with a pulping station where any paper products are automatically separated and turned into recyclables. There is a tech lab with Mac computers.

And there is a sound system not only in the spacious music suite — chock full of instruments — but there is a sound system in the gymnasium and in the cafeteria. "The Student Council had said it wanted music during lunch and now it will get it," Weller said.

Perhaps the crown jewel is the library, an atrium with brick columns surrounded by benches, not to mention computers, reading nooks, and nearly floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside is a playground and enough fenced-in space so that every class will have their own vegetable plot.

But Weller's favorite part of the new school is its geothermal system.

"It's not very sexy but the whole building will be air conditioned and the cold is coming from the earth," she said. "And in the winter we don't have to heat any air colder than 54 degrees."

Weller said that only the finishing touches are being put on the $35 million school complex at 55 Washington Street just one block off Bloomfield Avenue and that public tours hopefully will start by the end of August, as soon as the school receives its permanent certificate of occupancy.

Even the blue lockers have all been installed.

"It's enough to make the high school students very jealous," Weller said.

The school took two years of construction to complete and many more years of planning to conceive. Weller said the school will house about 400 students but has the capacity for about 600 students.

In addition to all the other bells and whistles, perhaps it's the attention to little details that's most impressive. In the massive nurse's office, for example, there is an examination room as well as stalls surrounded by curtains decorated in a tic-tac-toe pattern.

"How will we ever keep the kids out of the nurse's office?" Weller asked.

From the look of it, she probably won't.