When moving day finally came for the 659 students who would be attending the new Flat Rock Elementary, teachers and staff from the county’s other two county elementary schools decided they couldn’t let the day pass silently by.

Instead they held a parade and prepared celebratory snacks to mark the occasion, no doubt helping to ease the transition for the students who had been attending Powhatan and Pocahontas Elementary while they waited for the new school to be completed.

Last Friday, as the students neared the end of their third day in the new facility, principal Tanja Atkins-Nelson was celebrating as well.

The transition, she said laughing, has been “smooth as a flat rock.”

And so it goes for what Atkins-Nelson refers to as “the first family of Flat Rock.” The work on the school is largely done, save for a few paint touchups and the construction of a bus canopy, which school superintendant Dr. Margaret S. Meara says should be completed by the end of November.

They’ve already picked out the school colors, orange and black, and chosen a name, the Warriors. And as students settled in for story time in Phyllis Price’s second grade class they did so as comfortably as if they’d been attending the school all along.

Teachers and other staff members had done more than just show up for the first day of classes; many had been spending hours after school and the two weekends prior to opening day moving their materials and setting up classrooms.

Once the heavy lifting was done however, both teachers and students were free to enjoy a facility most described last week with one word: beautiful.

Designed by Roger Richardson and Charles Tilley of BCWH, Flat Rock Elementary is the only two story elementary school in the county, and features a design reminiscent of Powhatan High School, which is located next door. 

“Prior to the construction of all of our schools, we spent many hours of planning, including visitations to other schools throughout the state,” said Meara in a statement last week. She describes the finished building as a “functional yet beautiful facility.” 

For Atkins-Nelson, the true joy was seeing the faces of students as they recognized teachers and friends from their old school.

“They were so excited,” said Atkins-Nelson, and the Flat Rock Family was finally home.