New Warren Elementary revealed
Published 1:52 pm Wednesday, July 30, 2025
BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ
david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com
Audio enhancement across classrooms. Bathrooms attached to first-floor classrooms. A storm-proof gymnasium shelter, open to the public in emergencies.
The new Warren Elementary — a $43 million state-of-the-art facility, located down the winding Brookwood Drive at 1140 on a new road that’ll be named Charolais Avenue — replaces the roughly 50-year-old Warren Elementary.
The Warren County Public Schools Board of Education and administrators, alongside Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce Chief Financial Officer Meredith Rozanski, cut the ribbon with well over 100 present, and an open house followed. It’s built for a capacity of 850 students but can house “much more” than that comfortably, according to WCPS Superintendent Rob Clayton.
“It’s night and day,” said second-grade Warren Elementary teacher Todd Kessler.
His classroom is somewhat larger, the hallways are wider and a major improvement is the bathroom attachment, he said. When he taught kindergarten last school year, the limited bathroom options meant much time was spent scheduling bathroom breaks for students, he added.
“Any one nice feature you can point out here, I most likely didn’t have where we’ve been.”
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Each classroom has audio enhancements through four speakers, allowing teachers to talk normally as their voices are carried, Warren Elementary Principal Josh Porter said. English-language learners can plug headphones into Chromebooks for a program that translates teachers’ instruction into the students’ native languages, as the students acquire English through their reading materials, group work, lunch and cocurricular activities, WCPS Chief Operations Officer Chris McIntyre said.
The wider hallways improve egress to and from classes regularly and during emergencies, WCPS Superintendent Rob Clayton said. A slide of accomplishment that goes from the library to the cafeteria will be used to celebrate student accomplishments, Porter said. The furniture layout prioritizes comfortable spaces to learn and teach, Clayton said.
Second-grade teacher Latrisha Sampson, who shared Kessler’s point of the classroom-attached bathroom, showed appreciation for the flexible seats, which have backs that can wiggle: “It will help all sorts of students who have trouble fidgeting and things — they’re already fidget proof.”
The gymnasium, which also has a small rock-climbing attachment, can withstand a category-five tornado, according to McIntyre. A tractor-trailer “could land on the roof and withstand that number of pounds as well as force,” Clayton said.
The gymnasium-shelter will serve non-school community members as well in the event of a tornado or other weather emergency, Clayton said.
“It’s a community school, and we want our community to have access to utilize the facility, and we just know that by providing them a state-of-the-art facility, we’re not only leveling the playing field for our students, but we’re providing them the best of opportunities,” Clayton said.
The facility also has a focus on energy efficiencies. Technology called inverters stores energy and restores power for two hours if power goes down, McIntyre said.
“This is pretty much our new standardized building,” he said.
The playground is aligned to be separate from the bus loop and car rider loop to improve safety, he added.
It serves the Warren Central feeder area, which also includes Warren Central High, Moss Middle, Rockfield Elementary, Jennings Creek Elementary and Lost River Elementary, McIntyre said.
The previous Warren Elementary is undergoing a significant remodel to become WCPS’s first Early Learning Academy, which will educate more than 800 preschool students, Clayton said.
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