Rantoul Junior High School Gets New Innovation Center

Rantoul- Gone are the days of a library with just books at J W Eater Junior High School in Rantoul. In it's place is a new innovation center. 

Eater Junior High School new innovation center is ready for use, after being under construction  since the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year. The new center replaces the outdated library in the school. "I really see this as a way to transform standard learning in a classroom, students sitting in a row or sitting at a table, and really being able to explore how they learn" said Ryan Green, Principal of J W Eater Junior High. 

The new innovation center gives students a unique opportunity to learn in a space that strays from the typical classroom setting. "The ability to do the collaborative learning outside of the classroom we have so many different areas here that can be explored" said Green. 

The center offers reading spaces, where students can sit off in a corner to study and read by themselves, or with a partner. A room featuring a green screen, that can offer a variety of opportunities for students. Two walls that are top to bottom white boards, an area to learn coding, and a room dedicated to STEM activities, as well as a variety of other unique areas. "It feels like a college to me, because we get to come here and study" said Jamari Buford, an eighth grade student. 

The school anticipated that the students would be excited once the center was finished, but they did not realize the large impact it would have on them. "When the students walk in the look on their face, the calming effect" said Green, "It invigorates them, and that's not something that you can put on paper, that's something we saw and experienced when we opened."

The center has such an impact on the current students, that they can't wait for the incoming students next year to see it. "I think they will be surprised too, because they wouldn't expect a middle school to have all this nice stuff." said Lorenz Lee, an eighth grade student. 

"I feel like the people that are going to come here later are going to enjoy this library." said James Moton, another eighth grade student. 

"I want to respect them and leave it clean for them, I know they are young and going to enjoy it" added Buford. 

Moton thinks that this innovation center is the first step to putting Rantoul on the map as a major city in the state. "This is a start to make Rantoul one of the big cities, because I feel like Rantoul is starting to grow, slowly but surely, and I feel like this is one of the big steps that is going to help us be known."

The innovation center was just one of a variety of projects in the Rantoul City School District, including new floors, locker rooms, and bathrooms.