CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – As interior work has begun on the new Charlottesville Middle School academic building, current students and staff are “leaving their mark” on the new school… signing a steel beam that will become part of the southwest corner of the new gym. 7th grader Benjamin Thompson says none of the current students will be there when the new buildings open, but this way they are part of the history.
“I think it’s going to be a memory because my sister’s going to be coming here soon. To see in the future the building that I was not going to be able to be a part of, I’ll be able to see my sister grow up in there.”

Principal Rodney Jordan loves this opportunity for students like Ben.
“I think it’s extremely important since our current 7th and 8th graders will not be here when the project is finished, they’ll still have a place in history because they’re signing the steel beam.”

Jordan says he and the construction manager talk to each other on the phone multiple times each day, and they’ll tell him when a steel shipment is coming in… or they’ll stop construction to let students who go to PE at the Boys and Girls Club to get go and come safely.

The building will open for 7th-and-8th graders to move in for the 2025-26 school year… then 6th graders will join the next year.