Students Tour New Mildred Elley School on Central

This school year, Mildred Elley Admissions Director Maria Neal greeted new students with some unlikely school supplies: hard hats.

Students from Mildred Elley and Austin School of Spa Technology donned yellow hard hats to tour the school's new facilities and get a first look at the brand-new space on Central Avenue. Construction crews still worked around the tours, moving through and adding finishing touches to the brand-new classrooms, labs, library, and student lounges.

Mildred Elley and Austin will merge in the newly-renovated building at 855 Central Avenue, where the beauty school will be housed on the first floor, and the Mildred Elley classrooms and common areas will be located upstairs. The new school will offer three times more space than the old school, with more room for programs like barbering, nail tech, business, medical assisting, hospitality and the new additions like the LPN program, Neal said.

Students will also enjoy a more campus-like atmosphere in the new space, where the common areas like student lounges, computer labs, and the bookstore will encourage students to mingle and relax. The new facilities are "more collegic feeling," Neal said.

Students who have visited are "pumped" to see the new space, and they're already looking forward to opportunities for cross-training, she said. Austin students can take business classes upstairs, and Mildred Elley students can explore new career options downstairs, she said.

Mildred Elley offered students goody bags with coupons from a number of local businesses including Carmine's, Gateway Diner, Rosen's Uniforms, Hoffman's Car Wash, Geico, and Bruegger's Bagels.

Austin students will begin classes September 8, and Mildred Elley students will return to school on September 15.