Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Marks Beginning for McNair Elementary

Students and staff at McNair Elementary have settled into their new school during the last week, and on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 10 a.m., they will officially mark the opening of the school with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Members of the Guilford County Board of Education, the district’s construction and facility teams, community leaders and members of the McNair family and Fulmore family will also be in attendance.

McNair Elementary is named for two special individuals. The school building is named after astronaut and physicist Dr. Ronald E. McNair, who received his bachelor’s degree from nearby North Carolina A&T State University. He was one of seven crew members killed on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986.

The school’s media center will bear the name of Dr. Julius A. Fulmore, who provided 36 years of service to Greensboro City Schools starting as a sixth-grade teacher in 1954. He was also a principal, assistant superintendent, deputy superintendent and member of the Greensboro City Board of Education. He served
an important role during the desegregation of the district. Dr. Fulmore and members of McNair’s family will be in attendance on Wednesday.

The 88,900 square-foot building sits on a wooded 44-acre site and includes 36 classrooms supported by a media center, multi-purpose room and cafeteria. The design capacity of the school is for 700 students in grades kindergarten through fifth. Currently, about 488 students are enrolled.

The school features sustainable materials, including natural lighting in the school hallways that reduces the need for electrical lighting, solar panels for water heating, light sensors, a light-colored roof to reduce heat gain, an integrated fresh-air system, sun shades for large windows and low-flow plumbing fixtures.

Throughout the building, various classrooms and the media center incorporate small outdoor learning environments. Vegetation has been planted to grow up green screens that will provide shade over outdoor patio areas. The art classroom and science lab were equipped with movable exterior wall systems, allowing the classrooms to literally open up to the outdoors when weather permits and facilitate an indoor/outdoor classroom
space.

Students and staff officially started at their new school on Feb. 4. Since the beginning of the school year,
McNair had operated at two locations - Jesse Wharton Elementary and Brightwood Elementary, with staff and students divided between the two sites.

In September 2012, the Guilford County Board of Education voted to terminate its contract with Farley Associates, Inc., the original contractor responsible for the construction of McNair Elementary, located at 4603 Yanceyville Road in Brown Summit. JE Dunn oversaw the project's completion and resumed construction in October of 2012.