Davidson Principal Art DeFilippo rings an old bell at the new Davidson Elementary School. The bell was given to the school 80 years ago. Farmers used to set their clocks by the bell, according to DeFilippo. The new Davidson School is under construction and is expected to be completed by Friday.
A Davidson School bell that farmers in the early 1900s used to set their clocks has been moved from the 100-year-old school.
The school is being demolished and will be replaced with the new Davidson Elementary which is set to be completed Friday.
“The bell, given to the school 80 years ago, was something people used to set their clocks. Now it’s something we use to set our goals,” said Davidson Principal Art DeFilippo, who will start his fourth year as principal in its new location, 3950 E. Paradise Falls Drive, just a few stones’ throws from the former site at 3915 E. Fort Lowell Road.
The main goal, he said, “is to do better each and every day. We want constant, never-ending improvement. We tell parents, ‘You’re a better parent than you were yesterday.’ We may say to students or each other, ‘You made a mistake today. Try not to make it tomorrow. Do better each day.”
The Tucson Unified School District governing board said it would be cheaper to rebuild than remodel the school, which was plagued with mold problems, and voted in 2002 to demolish it.
As the old school crumbles under wrecking crews, the new school is nearly complete, with only cleanup, planting of sod and lots of unpacking still left to do before the first day of school Aug. 15.
All signs of demolition at the old Davidson should be gone by the end of this month.
On the stage in the new cafeteria/multipurpose room are two pianos and a foosball table clearly marked “for the staff lounge.” There are violins and violas and boxes upon boxes marked “move to the new school.”
There are a courtyard and outdoor stage, where the bell will be, and lots of wide-open spaces. “The school was built to make us be outside,” DeFilippo said.
Outside they should be. The new Davidson is a Green LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) campus. The program, a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings, means all materials that can be are recycled.
All materials used are environmentally friendly, DeFilippo said. All the cleaning chemicals used will be bio-degradable. In addition, there are solar panels on some of the buildings that should account for 10 percent of the energy used. The school will cover 132,000 square feet.
School officials, neighbors and students plan to seek a Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant in September to make the grounds of the new school a park for the immediate area. There are hopes for a botanical garden on the east side of the property, handicapped-accessible playground equipment and an exercise track.
While there is excitement for the new school, DeFilippo said there is sadness in seeing the old school disappear.
To keep the emotion to a minimum, last school year was dedicated to “transitions,” which was even the theme of the yearbook.
“In one entire hallway we had one side full of pictures of the past Davidson of the ’40s and ’50s. Past principals, pictures from past years, and on the other side we had big 8 1/2-by-11-inch pictures of the new school dedication, the groundbreaking, new construction,” DeFilippo said. “And we kept telling the students the new school was going to have air conditioning. The old one only had swamp coolers.”
Some of the teachers have been at Davidson for 16, 18, even 23 years. So it was hard for them because they had so much history at the old school. But it’s nice the new school is so close, DeFilippo said.
“We’ve taken the staff over on small walking tours so they can get excited as construction moved on.”
Work crews from Action Demolition demolish the old Davidson Elementary School on Thursday morning.
Work crews from Action Demolition, L.L.C., demolish the old Davidson Elementary School, 3915 East Fort Lowell Rd., Thursday morning. A new Davidson School is under construction an expected to be completed by July 14.
Angel Araiza, of Moreno Concrete Construction, Inc., applies concrete to a wall at the new Davidson Elementary School, 3915 East Fort Lowell Rd., Thursday morning.