Students from Center Avenue, Clearfield and Summit elementary schools on Monday visited the junior high school, which will become Butler Middle School with district consolidation next school year.

Many fourth and fifth graders in the Butler School District feel a mixture of excitement and nervousness when they think about attending school at the current Butler Junior High building this fall.

Students from Center Avenue, Clearfield and Summit elementary schools on Monday morning got to visit the soon-to-be Butler Middle School, which will house fifth and sixth graders beginning in September.

Before walking through the halls and taking a quick peek in the gym, the cafeteria and a few of the classrooms, administrators Josh Hundertmark and Jason Huffman gave elementary students the opportunity to ask questions and state concerns in the school auditorium about their transition.

Dozens of little hands shot up.

“Is it normal to have butterflies?” asked Nova Steele, a Summit Elementary fourth grader.

“I've had a couple brothers come through the building and they say it's a good place,” another student said.

Another asked whether they will be kept with their peers from their own elementary schools. While that won't be the case, Hundertmark said there will be opportunities to make new friends.

“Nervous? Excited? We are too,” said Hundertmark, who is currently the principal at Connoquenessing Elementary School.

Meanwhile, Huffman, the junior high assistant principal, assured students they would still have recess, still have class pets and school won't feel too different once they're in their own classroom. He also highlighted some of the STEAM initiatives at the school, short for science, technology, engineering, art and math.

There will be 22 sixth grade classes and 21 fifth grade classes at the middle school. Grades will be separated by floor.

The Butler School Board last week approved a district consolidation plan that will close five elementary schools and reconfigure grades at the primary and secondary levels this fall.

That includes making the remaining six elementary schools primary centers housing kindergarten through fourth grade, and sending fifth and sixth graders to the junior high building, where seventh and eighth graders now attend.Fourth and fifth graders from all of the district's 11 elementary schools will be taking a tour of their new schools in the next week. Elementary students whose schools are closing or who are being moved to a different school will visit their new schools this month.Junior high students from Starfish, the school's anti-bullying program, led tours.“I think it was nice to share the stuff that we learned,” said Lindsey Uranker, 14, an eighth grader. “I heard some positive remarks.”Huffman said elementary students were overwhelmingly positive.“The enthusiasm that they came in with was refreshing to see,” he said.Some critics of the consolidation plan claim the downtown school is unsafe for students so young or that the building, which has sections nearly 100 years old, is too old to repurpose. However, proponents of the plan, like board member Don Pringle, said, “The new Butler Middle School will be the gem of the district.”Nearly more than $850,000 in proposed improvements in the district's 2015-16 budget are for the middle school, which includes $796,000 in technology upgrades, $32,000 for the new STEAM curriculum equipment and curriculum materials, $12,800 for a new playground and $10,000 in building improvements.At the end of the tour Monday, 9-year-old Nova said, “It was amazing. My mind was blown.”

Here is the schedule of tours for students to visit schools under the recently approved plan to consolidate buildings in the Butler School District.Junior high (Middle school)Today: Center TownshipWednesday: Northwest and OaklandFriday: McQuistionMay 18: Emily Brittain and ConnoquenessingMay 19: Meridian and Broad StreetElementary SchoolMay 18: Meridian students visit Northwest; Oakland students visit Center Township; Meridian students visit Connoquenessing; Broad Street students visit Emily Brittain; and Clearfield students visit SummitMay 21: Center Avenue, Meridian and Summit students visit McQuistionMay 22: Broad Street and Northwest students visit Center Township

Nova Steele, a fourth grader at Summit Elementary School, appears in awe during Monday's tour. “It was amazing. My mind was blown,” she said.