ROYAL CITY — With about 100 parents and other visitors on hand, officials of the Royal School District celebrated the official opening of the new Royal Intermediate School.

Students have been attending and teachers have been teaching since the first day of school this fall. By placing the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders there, the district alleviated some crowding.

Superintendent Rose Search kicked off the ceremony by welcoming everyone and giving a brief address. She thanked school board members and administrators and all others in attendance.

School Board President Bob Murphy also spoke briefly, then RIS Principal Linda Achondo took the microphone.

“I’m the lucky principal of Royal Intermediate School,” she said. “I’ve been working on this speech for quite awhile, and I’ve had many different versions in my head, none of which were quite right. “The one thing I kept coming back to was the word community”.

When Achondo was hired as the assistant principal at Red Rock three years ago, Bob Murphy called to congratulate her and invite her to help at the district’s Summer Fest booth.

“As soon as we got to Royal, I noticed something was different, but I had a hard time identifying what it was. Later that night, my husband said, ‘You know what’s different about that place don’t you? It still has that small town community feeling’”.

“He was right,” Achondo added. “Royal is the type of place we had laid awake at night wondering if we’d be able to find to raise our kids in.”

Achondo noted Royal is type of place where the people in the grocery store know your name, where a school board member buys your coffee at the local coffee shop, where the whole town attends the football games on Friday night, and where the community comes together to support and pay for a bond for a new school because it is needed.

“I am proud to work in this community, to be the leader of this school, and to be a Royal Knight,” she said.

Then she thanked a list of people who needed to be thanked thank:

I want to thank all of you for supporting the bond, the school board and Mrs. Search for believing in me and hiring me to be the principal of this school.

Theresa Eilers for being my mentor and teaching me the ropes as a new principal.

David Andra whose tireless work and support are one of the primary reasons this school was completed on time, who sacrificed time away from his family on numerous occasions to make sure it all came together, and who encouraged me to make my vision for this school a reality.

My husband who pushed me to pursue my dream of being an administrator and who has supported me through it all.

And finally to my staff, who work hard each and every day to embody our vision, “This student, this day, this day, this place – It Matters.”

After the ceremony, visitors were taken on guided tours of the school by RIS students.