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Unlike many children her age, first-grader Jyotsna Bhatnagar can't wait to go back to school.

Jyotsna spent her kindergarten year at the Grosvenor Center in Bethesda while her real school, Takoma Park Elementary School, underwent renovations, said her mother, PTA president Shruti Bhatnagar. Now Jyotsna will be done with lengthy bus rides and can enjoy a roomier school with new playground equipment and a science lab, her mom said.

Three of the six county schools with newly completed additions or modernizations are in East County, including Takoma Park, Cresthaven and East Silver Spring elementaries. The face lifts of these outdated, crowded buildings have school staff, parents and children excited to break in the new space, they said. Elsewhere in the county, major renovations were completed during the summer at Walter Johnson High School, Carderock Elementary School and Sherwood Elementary School.

For Takoma Park, this means a return to the walk-to-school culture rather than sending kids on a bus ride that could last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, Bhatnagar said. The $9.4 million addition to the school, located on Holly Avenue, includes a new bus circle that reduces traffic congestion, a kindergarten wing with bathrooms in each classroom, new playground equipment, promethean interactive whiteboards and a science lab, she said. And because the school is back in its own home, such after-school programs as yoga, poetry, French and drawing will once again be offered this fall, Bhatnagar said.

At East Silver Spring Elementary School on Silver Spring Avenue, Principal Adrienne Morrow said parents are thrilled to have the school expand from serving kindergarten to second grade into its new role as a full elementary school. The $10 million expansion, like that of Takoma Park Elementary, is designed to help relieve crowding in the Downcounty Consortium, according to school system data.

To include the higher grades, the school needed a computer lab, an instrumental music room and eight new classrooms, Morrow said. Its capacity went from 267 to 594, school data says.

"We're really excited about our kids being able to stay in that diverse community and in that melting pot through fifth grade," said Deirdre O'Connor, parent of twin second-grade girls Audrey and Elise Haverland. "... The continuity of it all feels great to the families who are a part of the East Silver Spring community."

O'Connor said the construction meant her children never had a full playground. They would spend their recess in a small park and part of the bus circle, but can now enjoy the new playground equipment, field and basketball hoops, she said.

And at Cresthaven Elementary School on Cresthaven Drive in Silver Spring, crews are working around the clock to put the finishing touches on the plumbing, wiring and pavement of their brand-new facility.

"We have a drop-dead gorgeous, magnificent, state-of-the-art, multimillion-dollar school that tops anything anyone else has in the county," said Principal Kafi Berry. "And we couldn't be happier."

Before the modernization, Cresthaven had 17 portable classrooms, she said.

"It was built in 1964, and it was shoddily built at that time, but also, over time, the maximum capacity certainly did not hold our school," she said.

Berry said the school, which was designed by female architects, has great feng shui. The pumpkin and squash color palette, coupled with the natural daylight and beautiful landscaping, create a warm, child-friendly environment, she said.

The $22.5-million school has 23 classrooms serving grades three through five. For the first time, the school will have a gymnasium for physical education classes and community use, she said. The school, with a capacity for 511 students, will feature promethean boards, a computer lab with 30 stations, a playground with climbing walls, and lockers in the hallways, Berry said.

Berry said that all schools undergoing renovations will likely have a few kinks to work out over the first year, but for now, she and her staff are all smiles.

"They're just flipping over with delight," she said.

jdebedrosian@gazette.net