A Closer Look at Our Schools

How well do our school buildings support today’s students?

Over the past year, the Mount Vernon City Schools Facility Advisory Committee - made up of parents, staff, and community members - toured every building in the district to take an honest look at our facilities.

Through this process, the committee identified five key factors impacting our elementary buildings: safety, operational efficiency, aging infrastructure, instructional space, and student support.

This video series shares what the committee learned across all five of our elementary schools - buildings that have served Mount Vernon families for generations.

Five of Mount Vernon’s elementary schools were built between 1904 and 1958. Two are now more than 100 years old, and several others are over 70.

These buildings have been carefully maintained over the years thanks to the dedication of our maintenance and facilities team, who work every day to keep our schools safe, comfortable, and running smoothly for students and staff.

However, many mechanical, HVAC, and structural systems are now beyond their typical life cycle. Several schools will also need new roofs in the coming years.

Maintaining these aging systems requires frequent repairs and constant monitoring, with significant resources going toward simply preserving current conditions.

Many of our elementary schools were built decades before today’s school safety standards.

Because of that, some buildings lack features that are now common in modern schools, like secure entry vestibules and clearer interior sight lines for supervision.

Arrival and dismissal can also be challenging in spaces that weren’t designed for today’s traffic patterns, where buses, parent vehicles, and pedestrians share limited areas.

These buildings reflect the time they were built - but they also present real safety challenges today.

A lot happens behind the scenes to keep our elementary schools running each day.

Several buildings were designed at a time when schools looked very different than they do today. Because of that, some spaces have to serve multiple purposes throughout the day - like gymnasiums doubling as lunch areas.

Meal service can also require extra coordination, with food prepared at one school and delivered to others without full kitchens.

It’s one example of how our staff continually adapt older buildings to meet the needs of today’s students.

Modern schools include spaces designed for things like speech and occupational therapy, sensory support, STEM learning, gifted programs, and hands-on maker activities - spaces that simply weren’t part of school design in the early 1900s.

Because of that, some programs in our current buildings take place in shared or adapted spaces rather than rooms designed specifically for those subjects.

Supporting today’s learners often requires flexible spaces that older buildings weren’t originally built to provide.

After visiting every elementary school, the Facility Advisory Committee saw something clearly: our buildings carry a lot of history - and some real challenges.

Many of these schools have served Mount Vernon families for generations. They’re filled with memories, traditions, and dedicated educators who support students every day.

But buildings that are 70, 80, and even 100+ years old weren’t designed for everything schools are asked to do today.

That’s why the district has begun thoughtful planning for the future  to make sure our school facilities reflect the quality of education we want for Mount Vernon students not just today, but for decades to come.