GARDNER — Future PikeView Middle School students tossed a little dirt, but their dreams soared Friday as students from Athens, Lashmeet/Matoaka, Melrose, Oakvale, Spanishburg and Sun Valley schools took part in the ground-breaking exercise for Mercer County’s newest middle school.

“It started with a dream,” Madison Hodges, an articulate sixth-grade student from Athens School said. “In 22 months, I will welcome you to our new school.”

Hodges represented a group of 33 students — all wearing red, P3 t-shirts — that faced the group of dignitaries throughout the course of the ground-breaking ceremony. The P3 stands for P to the third power and represents “PikeView Panther Planners,” the name the committee came up with for their efforts.

Rick Ball, director of pupil services for Mercer County Schools served as master of ceremonies for the event on the site of the new school and Dr. Deborah Akers, superintendent of Mercer County Schools, introduced the many dignitaries in attendance. She called for, and received, a rousing round of applause for Princeton attorney, Robert E. “Bob” Holroyd, a member of the state School Building Authority, who gave Mercer County $12 million to build the school.

Akers introduced representatives of various building firms who will be building the new school including Patrick Dove of Swope Construction, (general contractor), Tim Lusk of Southern Air (plumbing), David and Scott Darnold of Darnold Co., (heating and air-conditioning), Larry Douglas and Ben Donevant of Douglas Equipment (kitchen equipment), Todd Boggess and Rob Johnson of E.T. Boggess Architect Inc., design architects on the project as well as George Corvin, clerk of the works on the project for Mercer County Schools.

Boggess addressed the students to his back, as well as the dignitaries in the audience, and expressed his appreciation to the students for their input throughout the process. “My buddies Jake (Harmon of Spanishburg School) and Seth (Meadows of Melrose School), have been after me to put an escalator in there, so that may be your first change order, Dr. Akers,” Boggess said jokingly. He assured his two young friends as well as everyone that there will be an elevator in the building.

Ball explained that the P3 student committee started working with a Tinker Toy set, that they eventually joined together “to create PikeView Middle School,” he said. The 36-member P3 Committee (three could not make it on Friday because they were out of school that day) selected the name of school, the mascot, a Panther Cub, the school colors, red-black-white, and the design for the logo. The students cheered when Ball unveiled the logo to them first.

Gene Bailey, vice president of the Mercer County Board of Education, expressed his thoughts about the public process that led to the development of the school. “We did not agree on the best way to educate these students,” Bailey said. However, he noted that after eight public hearings and a split vote, “that could have gone either way,” he said the board is absolutely united to build, “the best possible building for the best school for these students.”

Two-student teams from each of the schools affected by the middle school consolidation effort joined to toss some ceremonial dirt for the event. “My understanding is that they are going to put the main wall for the building in right here today, and you all have to dig down 10 feet,” Akers said playfully as the students prepared for the ceremonial ground breaking. “I’m sorry that I failed to mention that earlier,” Akers added. She smiled. The P3 committee members smiled, and PikeView Middle School is on its way.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com