A line of first graders bounced with excitement as they filed outside toward Allenstown Community School’s brand new playground. Principal Shannon Kruger watched the children’s eyes grow wide when they stepped for the first time onto the bouncy ground, made of poured rubber. One child exclaimed, “This is just amazing,” leaving tears in Kruger’s eyes.

Tuesday marked Allenstown Community School’s first official first day of school. The kindergarten through eighth-grade school opened its doors in May, allowing students to complete the final six weeks of the year in the new building. However, starting out this next year in their permanent home created a palpable sense of wonder among students and staff alike.

“I love it,” first-grade student Charlotte said with a grin. She tested out the playground’s slide for the first time then said she can’t wait to try the monkey bars next.

Work on the playground finished over the summer, so this was the first time students got to explore the new structures and jump around on the poured rubber ground. The school’s makerspace, which features robotics equipment and 3D printers, similarly was not complete in the spring.

Prior to the opening of Allenstown Community School, which took 19 months to build, kindergarten through fourth grade students attended Allenstown Elementary School, and fifth- through eighth-grade students went to the Armand R. Dupont School. Now, with everybody under one roof, the sense of community feels stronger, Kruger said.

“I think everybody just feels like this is home now,” she added.

The building features common areas with comfortable seating for students to congregate before the day begins or even for teachers to hold class in different spaces. A mural of a different New Hampshire natural habitat decorates the wall of each hallway, creating a sense of place for students in different grade levels. The school also boasts a classroom with multiple kitchens for a new Family and Consumer Science class, pollinator gardens, and raised beds for planting. Teachers can sign up to take their classes to the different learning spaces and bring classroom concepts to life in a new way.

“We know our kids thrive with experiential learning and we’re trying to give it to them as much as possible,” Kruger said.

Eighth-grade students Brielle, Morgan, and Grady can’t wait to spend their last year before high school in the new building. Brady loves the playground; Brielle hopes to try out the new art spaces soon; Morgan can hardly believe there are actual bleachers on which she can now sit to watch basketball games.

The trio marveled at the improved quality of their school environment. They recalled rusty lockers, broken toilets, dripping ceiling, unregulated temperatures, and weird smells in the previous Allenstown school buildings.

“In fourth grade when the new plans for the school were announced, I never believed we would actually be here right now,” Brielle said.

All three of them have younger siblings who now attend school under the same roof, whereas they would have been in separate buildings before. Even on the first day, they each ran into their siblings multiple times and stole hugs in the hallway.

“I really like how the whole school is located in one place,” Grady said. “We’re like one big family.”

Kindergarten teacher Sara Marzinzik appreciates the opportunity to have her students, the youngest at the school, interact with students in other grades.

“Now we’re K-8 so we’re working on ways to make it a whole community,” Marzinzik said. “Having some of the big kids be those role models and those examples, and seeing that they are, gives them that power to be part of this community. Allenstown is a pretty small town. It’s always felt like a very supportive community, and it’s nice for the kids to live that now.”

Special education teacher Christine Russel previously shared a classroom with multiple other special education teachers and expressed how challenging it was to try to maintain her students’ focus in a shared space. Russel now has her own classroom for the first time.

“It’s so much easier to get kids engaged and focused and not distracted, which is a definite symptom of a lot of kids that go to special education,” she said. “Now we just have such a better environment for them to do learning.”

Middle school counselor Carli Cioppa said she now has a space to hold confidential discussions with students, whereas it was harder when she shared an office at Armand R. Dupont. Cioppa also explained that learning the ropes of the building has taken some time.

“Our last six weeks of school here were really important because it took a few days for even the adults to get used to everything,” Cioppa said. “I think the biggest challenge is trying to navigate helping the kids know where to go when we don’t really know where to go yet. Now we’re doing a little bit better.”

Several teachers and students mentioned how relieved they are to be in a space with well-regulated temperatures. Kruger said there were days where they had to close the elementary school because it was so hot or, conversely, had to close the middle school because there was no heat. Eighth-grader Morgan said she really appreciates not freezing or overheating on a daily basis anymore.

“I feel like I can be a lot more organized and efficient and a better student in this environment,” Morgan said

Even though it’s only the first day of the new year, Marzinzik said she feels comfortable in the building.

“I love that we came in the spring because my classroom already feels like my home,” Marzinzik said. “I already got to personalize it.”

Alyssa Campbell, Stephanie Collier, and Kelly Huggins work at Allenstown Community School and had their own children start school there on Tuesday as well. The three moms each mentioned their kids’ excitement about the new playground.

“The people here were already so welcoming and knew his name off the bat,” Campbell said of her son, who just started kindergarten. “It was a nice adjustment, not as hard as we thought it was going to be.”

The mothers look forward to their children being able to take advantage of the new building and all it has to offer. Kruger, too, can’t wait to see how the year unfolds.

“I could hardly sleep last night I was so excited,” Kruger said. “I’m just really excited to see where we can take our opportunities that we ha ve this year and really watch our kids soar.”

Rachel Wachman can be reached at rwachman@cmonitor.com.