McCall Idaho Headline News

Former McCall teacher and NASA astronaut Barbara Morgan got a tour on Friday of the school that will bear her name.

Morgan got a look at the elementary school under construction in McCall that was named earlier in the day as Barbara R. Morgan Elementary School.

In the tour, she said and knew right away she wanted to return to teach at the school.

Barbara Morgan gets a tour on Friday of the newly named Barbara K. Morgan Elementary School from Jim Coles of Design West in Meridian.

A dedication ceremony was held Friday afternoon at the multipurpose room at McCall Elementary School prior to the tour to formally bestow the new name upon the school.

After the ceremony, a group made up of current and former McCall-Donnelly officials, elementary school teachers and M-D's construction management and design teams gave Morgan a tour of the newfacility located near Payette Lakes Middle School.

Mostly current elementary students attended the naming ceremony. M-D trustees wanted to give children who would use the school next year first chance to attend the ceremony, Principal Jim Foudy said.

A Natural Choice
Trustees deemed the multipurpose room an appropriate spot to hold the ceremony. With all students attending, the room quickly reached capacity set by fire code, and members of the public were turned away. Former M-D Superintendent Everett Howard told his attentive, quiet audience he was not surprised that Morgan stepped forward to apply for NASA’s Teacher in Space program in 1985.

Her background in science and education made her a natural choice, Howard said. Application for the honor involved many letters of recommendation before she won a place among the finalists.

"Undaunted, she forged ahead and was not only determined to ... the knowledge for her students but to elevate the role of teachers worldwide," he said.

Morgan was chosen to back up teacher Christa McAuliffe, and McAuliffe and Morgan became close friends while in the space program. McAuliffe died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded soon after takeoff in 1986.

Morgan was named McAulliffe's replacement and began a 21-year journey that culminated in her 13-day flight on the space shuttle Endeavour in August.

Prior to departing the multipurpose room for her tour, Morgan signed essays written by Zakkary Schirmeister and Alex Fields about how they had been inspired by Morgan's example.

At the new school, Morgan followed every word of Jim Coles, her tour guide and
the architect with Meridian architectural design firm Design West. v Morgan approved of the decision to put environmentally friendly and performance enhancing features in the new building.

She was impressed with the use of skylights and reflected light to illuminate rooms inside the school.

"Do you remember when we took all those beautiful windows out and put the teeny, tiny ones in and how we stood at the doors and said no way?" Morgan said to her former boss, former elementary school Principal John Wall.

Morgan wondered about getting natural light into the cafeteria and other downstairs areas in the two-story structure. Coles explained that the interior would be much brighter once the walls are finished.

Thrilled With Design
Morgan was thrilled shortcomings in the existing elementary school were eliminated in the new school and that teachers had flexibility to configure space within their classrooms.

She peered at the playground north of the building while construction supervisor Frank McCrady informed her the distance from building ensured the playground would not be shaded in winter and would stay ice-free.

"Also, they (the children) can be loud enough without disturbing the classes," she said.

During her tour, Morgan presented the school district with a framed photo of the Endeavour crew that was also signed by crew members.

Inside the frame with the picture was a crew patch that flew 5.3 million miles and completed 201 Earth orbits during Endeavour's assembly mission to the International Space Station.