By Allison T. Williams

Correspondent

A standing-room-only crowd packed Pioneer Elementary School on Sunday to formally celebrate the opening of the city’s new $18.5-million elementary school in the rural Holland community.

The two-story, 83,300-square-foot school, located at the corner of U.S. Route 58 and Pioneer Road, opened in September with approximately 500 students, said principal Danielle Belton. The new school will create educational opportunities for future generations, she added.

A new school has been on the city’s radar since 1991, when the Suffolk School Board decided to replace the now-shuttered Southwestern and Robertson elementary schools, in Holland and Whaleyville, respectively. That decision sparked years of delays and community debates over where to put the new school before the School Board bought the 47-acre site for Pioneer in 2013.

“I am so overjoyed for this day I can barely speak,” said Suffolk School Board Vice Chairman Enoch C. Copeland, a former city educator who represents the Holy Neck borough. “I have waited 22 years for this day.”

“I was here for the beginning, and I’m here to see it become a reality.”

The new school can accommodate up to 650 students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Each grade occupies its own wing of the school, which is painted in shades of purple and yellow, and has its own learning nook, an area designed for small-group instruction. The school also has a media center, computer labs, and music and art rooms.

“It’s spacious, colorful and beautiful,” said Brenda Mills, a second-grade teacher who spent the past 17 years at Southwestern. “It blew my mind to come into this classroom this year.”

More than 100 parents, students and current and former city and school division elected officials turned out for Pioneer’s opening on Sunday. Following the school’s dedication, the Suffolk Education Foundation dedicated its brick garden, a circular brick arrangement of engraved bricks around the flagpole.

So far, the fundraiser has generated more than $6,194 for the foundation, said foundation president and School Board member-elect David Mitnick. Pioneer will receive 10 percent of the proceeds from the brick sales, he said.