Raise That Beam!

With just under a year to go before Lower School students move into the new Richard A. Balderston OPC '69 Lower School, grades pre-K to 5 and their teachers celebrated a milestone in the building's construction: the raising of a steel beam that the entire Lower School signed.

Throughout the day, grade by grade, each student signed their name on the beam, painted white by the construction team. Toward the end of the school day, the excitement grew: With music, balloons, construction vests and "hard hats," the students and their teachers gathered just outside the construction zone to watch a crane raise the beam high above the building and lower it into place, carrying their names with it. "Raise that beam!" they chanted.

The Richard A. Balderston OPC '69 Lower School, scheduled to open by the start of the 2025-26 school year, features 80,000 square feet of interior space for pre-K to 5 students, outdoor classrooms on first-floor rooftops, and a library with more than 2,500 square feet of working space along with a glass classroom, an outside patio and a reading nook. It's no wonder the students – and teachers – are excited!

Head of School Karen Warren Coleman shared that enthusiasm when she addressed Lower School students: "Your teachers, your coaches, your nurses, your Lower School director, Dr. Morris, and I are all here for you. And we are all so very happy that you are all here with us!

"Before they put the walls up and paint and bring in things like furniture and artwork, our new Lower School needs one more thing: this big beam that all of you signed today! So, your name or your initials or maybe a picture you drew – it will be here on campus as a part of this building forever. That’s a long time, right? We hope you will be here for a long time, too, because each one of you brings something very special to our Penn Charter community."

See photos of the beam signing and raising.