Old Mill Students Grateful for Revamp

The work may have , but the of the campus has produced a heap of gratitude from students, teachers, administrators and parents.

“We absolutely love our remodeled school,” Old Mill Principal Kandee Adams told the board earlier this month.

Fourth grade teacher Dee Treshnell created a writing exercise for her students to express their gratitude for the work. Here are the students’ submissions:

Annabelle Rylander

Thank you for our new school
It is really cool
And all the work you put in makes a big difference
It’s more fun and it makes me happy
Thanks so much for our new school
I love it so much running free on the green grass
Beneath my feet
It’s the coolest place even without any swings
Thanks so much for our new school     
I love the new lunches
I love the new grass
The new school is like a castle
Thanks so much for our new school 

Bea Kivimae

I love the new fake grass on the Old Mill School yard!! I like it when it touches your shoes when you walk. The new set up on the yard is so cool! The outside is so cool! When we had tan bark it hurt much more when you fell. To think that this is the same school is amassing. Another marvelous thing is the coolness of the water in are room. It used to be warm and nasty! The school looks much better. I love our school it is so cool!!

Beckett Williams

Our new school is amazing! It is awesome in so many ways! The new computers are faster than the old ones, which allow you to do more work in less time. I also like the new turf around the play structure because if you fall, you will not get hurt! The bathrooms are crisp and fresh. Thank you taxpayers and parents for our amazing new school! It is the best!

Braedon Meldorf

When I walk up to the new and improved Old Mill School, I smile with delight. To see the new garden is pleasant with the school in the background.  It is very amazing with the tan paint on the school.
When I walk into the new room, I see new smiles and familiar ones.  When I walk out onto the blacktop, I see what looks like new turf and I see the playground.  Right now, I’m thinking “wow, what an amazing play ground!”  I’m also thinking “I’ve only been here in Mill Valley for 3 months, and I am already seeing the beauty of it!”  When I leave school with the chiming of the bell behind me, I think “I don’t know if I will be able to wait another day to go and have another amazing day at Old Mill School.”

Annika L. Astengo

Thank you for thinking of all of the kids at Old Mill School.  I appreciate each parent sacrifice to make our school beautiful.  I have only been here at Old Mill for a few weeks and enjoy being here everyday. Your efforts prove that you care.

Elena Klyce

Our new school is amazing! I love the clean walls the new turf and especially the new rooms (it is because I am in room 10.) And the bathrooms are so clean it’s like a miracle I mean its so much better than that old bathroom with broken bathrooms and smelly toilets. It's so different I love it I just cant believe how it turned out I just love it.

Elias Verdin

When I first walked into my new school, I was amazed. I thought it would be a big long hallway with lockers and a hard floor, but it was not like that. There were no lockers and there was a carpet instead of a hard floor. But the playground was better. Instead of woodchips, it had nice fluffy turf and fake grass. Best of all in the whole yard was the playground. It had everything that a good structure should have: long monkey bars, a fake rock climbing wall, nice sliding down poles and different stations where you can go. There is also a nice kickball area with a chain-linked fence around it. This school is the best!  Thank you taxpayers and parents!!

Jake Gassman

When I first saw our newly renovated Old Mill School, I was amazed at the new shiny turf beneath the play area.  It looked like Easter grass! The architects had designed it to have bouncy material underneath, making it fun to jump on and not nearly as hard to fall upon!
A number of “Four Square” games were painted upon the black top. This made a lot of kids happy because this game is fun! A lot of people play four square, so I know the Old Mill students like it, including me! Thank you parents and taxpayers, one and all!

Jake Schottenfeld

I love the turf
It is fun to jump on
You can shock people with the turf…it creates static electricity!
I also like the four square court
I have been at Old Mill since Kindergarten
This is the best it has ever been!
Thank you, parents and tax payers!

Johanna Meezan

I think the new school is very pretty and is well done by the architects and contractors. I like the cubbies for our backpacks. It is very organized now! I also like the colors of the new floors. The blue looks like the ocean and the carpet, bright confetti colors. I love the new classrooms because they are so neat and tidy. Outside the turf is so cool, it is bouncy and soft and I can’t get hurt very easily. Thank you for the great new school.

Julia Iris Ciampa

Our new school it is wonderful!  I’m new at this school and so far it’s awesome I love it. It has a way better playground then my old school I just love it and I have a lot of nice friends. I also love the view around all of the school. I also love our teacher a lot Mrs.Treshnell , she always  cracks us up. I just moved from Sweden. I really enjoy my new school that’s why I want to thank my parents, the builders, the principal, the teacher and every other person who made it possible to have such a beautiful school! 

Haley Holcomb

When I walked in this school on the first day of 4th grade I felt like I was going to faint!!  It looked so different! I was almost the first one there so I thought the White House in Washington DC had relocated to Mill Valley and my Dad accidentally drove there instead. Old Mill magically transformed into a beautiful building.
During recess, I walked on to the schoolyard and tripped expecting to fall on the former hard pokey tanbark that makes me bleed.  Instead, I fell on bouncy, awesome, squishy turf!! The architects, landscapers, and builders did a fantastic job! Thank you, one and all, for a brand new school!

Leia Jarek

Thank you for our new school. It looks great! I love how there are new playground designs and games for the school. The playgrounds are more fun than last year’s playgrounds. Now the lower playground has fake grass. The grass is spongy and when I’m on the monkey bars, and I fall off I don’t get hurt. Thank you for all the work and the money you put into the school because it looks great!
I really like how the fourth and fifth classrooms look like; room ten looks very cool and we have a lot of light streaming though the new windows. Thank you also for the new laptops. They are Macbooks and work much faster than the old computers. I love our new bright and shiny classroom. 

Oliver Collins

Thank you for our new school. It is amazing in ways that I describe below. I don’t how you guys accomplished this as fast as you did. Specifically, I really love the white paint. It is really, really cool.   My favorite improvement is the turf. It is nice and soft. Something else really awesome and cool is the new football field. What I like most about it is the marking of East and West on the blacktop. That makes it look like a real football field. Finally, I like the maze on the upper yard. It is fun to get lost in it! 

Rami Abuhalawa

Thank you for fixing the school and making it look so much better. Thank you for repainting the roofs and giving it brighter white. It looks so much better I love it. And thanks taxpayers ! You are awesome. And thank you for fixing the playground. It looks really good. You guys are the best. I love our school. It is really cool.

Samantha Sternfels

“I cannot believe this is the same school”, I thought, as I gazed upon the newly renovated Old Mill I have attended since kindergarten.
On the first day back, after summer vacation, I found myself running to school as fast as I could, trying not to be late.  I stopped; I stared open mouthed at the new glamorous blue, orange, yellow, and light blue carpet. Then the bell rang throughout the school. It chimes like a church bell. I found it more soothing than the former bell’s screeching sound.
I charged out on to the playground. There, the turf it is soft, bright green, and of course,” awesome.” It is bouncy like a trampoline and doesn’t hurt as much when you fall off the top of the monkey bars.
Our new hot lunch is a lot better than the past. Thank you to our fabulous PTA! After school I walk out front and gaze at al the new, fun pathways. With all these new trees and cool looking plants and design is great. I can pretend I am in a park!
And so I want to take this opportunity to thank the taxpayers of Mill Valley, the parents, PTA, Kiddo and …everyone …for such a nice school.

Sebastian Alamin

I cannot believe how much Old Mill School changed and how nice it looks today!
Old Mill is now safer for students. For example, on the lower playground they have fake grass so that when you fall, you do not get hurt as much. I also like how they have all the lines scrambled over the upper and lower playground. The new bathrooms are really nice as well, because the walls are no longer dirty, dusty and rusty!
Last year, upon arriving to school, I saw a “regular school” much like the others in the district. Now, when I bike to Old Mill School, I see a beautiful school with beautiful landscaping and a great looking playground!
Now, if anyone in the says to me, or to any Old Mill student, “ Hey! Our school is way cooler than yours!” we can now say, “Really? You should come take a quick look, BECAUSE newly renovated Old Mill School is awesome!”
Thank you parents and tax payers, Kiddo, contractors, landscapers, architects, teachers, administrators, and the school board, for helping to create “The NEW OLD MILL SCHOOL!”

Jack Nieker

I have lived in Mill Valley since I was born in 2002. I have attended Old Mill School since I was a little guy in Kindergarten in 2007. I remember lots of things about the way the school used to be--the old play structure, the picnic tables for lunches, the very ancient classrooms and windows.... Which is why it's so cool to have a new school. And it does look all new.
Not that I didn't like the old school, but the new one is much better! Change is good, and in this case, we were ready for a nicer and safer place. I want to say "THANKS!" to the tax payers of Mill Valley, the builders, the staff, the PTA, Kiddo, and to so many more of the people of Mill Valley who have made it possible for us to learn and to play in such a beautiful place. It really has pizzazz.

Owen Burns

I really like Old Mill School this year after all the construction. The new Mac computers are cool. I love the school garden out side, and It looks modern. Two of my favorite things are the astro turf and the 4-square courts. Overall the school looks really nice. It has been cleaned up, and even the bathrooms are new. The school has also been painted.

Tallulah de Saint Phalle

Thank you for our new school. It’s awesome in so many different ways. I love the squishy fake grass on the lower yard (it’s a lot softer then the tanbark was). I like how we have more of the games we used to have and new ones like the maze we have on the upper yard. I like the carpeting in the halls. The water fountains are a lot newer now and they all work correctly. The bathrooms are the things that changed the most now their new and clean .A lots of other things are new to like our computers.

Siena Romito

Our new school is amazing! I love the new shiny green turf on our brand new playground. Also, in the classrooms the sinks used to be all dirty but now they look new and shiny and clean. Even the bathrooms are looking better than before.
But my favorite part of the new school is the fourth/fifth downstairs area. It looks so new! Even the bell sound is new! I can’t believe this is the same OLD MILL I have been attending since second grade! A nice environment really does make a difference! Thank you parents and taxpayers!

Jasper Mercy

I am very impressed with the changes made to Old Mill. There has been such a transformation. One of the changes I noticed first was the brightly painted games on the blacktop. Of these my favorite is the soccer field. I also really like the Four Square and Kickball. Another thing I really like is the squeeshy green turf under the playground. It feels bouncy and fun.
On the inside, I like the new, green cubbies. My brother didn’t have these so I feel lucky. They are easier to keep my things together. The blue floors too. They are pretty cool.
Thank you for making my old school look and feel like new.

Justice Rosen

Thank you Mill Valley for the new, updated school. I love the playground improvements, especially the bouncy turf. I also like the running track, and that there are more four square courts. I can’t wait for the gaga pit to come back! I’ve been at Old Mill School since kindergarten and it’s never looked better. The “new” Old Mill is AWESOME!!! 

Gaby Diecks

Dear construction crew & all of the parents who donated money to renovate our school:
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for our new Old Mill School. I like it so much because everything that was renovated you did so well.
I remember the first time I saw it, it was so pretty, so bright and it smelled new! I especially like the new grass of the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade playground. Not to mention the new windows, they look FANTASTIC. They look like they belong in a chalet in France! 

Kyle Austin

The new Old Mill school playground is very cool. Especially the turf. The tanbark kept getting in my eyes .I love all the foursquare squares and the soccer and football field. I play foursquare the most though. I also like the new bathrooms. They are much cleaner and easier to use. The playground is so much better with the turf. All the circles are very fun. Thank you one and all for my wonderful school.