The former Party City building located near Ridgeland and 95th Street has been purchased, utilizing grant funds, by Ridgeland School District 122 and is currently being renovated to become a new Fine Arts building for students. Having the new Fine Arts building will allow the District to accomplish quite a few tasks for the Simmons Middle School community. The current band and art rooms are being moved to the Fine Arts building in order to provide more classroom space for students in the main school.
Students will also be able to enjoy additional encore course experiences at the middle school, with the new addition of a Family and Consumer Science classroom, where students will learn basic cooking skills and home economics. A General Music Classroom is also being added. Allowing students a multitude of opportunities opens up student choice and allows for these adolescents to have exposure to many other options prior to making choices at the high schools. Currently, beyond their core classes, the students at Simmons Middle School have encores in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), Communication and Media Arts, Research and Communications, General Art, and Constitutional Studies for the 7th graders. Ridgeland School District is excited to be able to provide these new learning experiences for the students in the community.