A new 61,000-square-foot addition at La Vergne Middle School will provide students and teachers with something they’ve needed desperately — rooms to call their own.

School and district leaders joined with students, teachers and administrators Thursday morning to cut the ribbon on the new annex and showoff the facility that cost taxpayers $16.2 million.

“This addition means we can have more freedom for our seventh-grade teachers,” said eighth-grade student Mauricio Cortes, a member of the school’s student ambassadors who led the tour of the new facility. “They’ve had to sit in with some other hallways, with our elective teachers. They now have their own classrooms.”

The addition, which has been under construction for the past 18 months, includes a 5,550 square-foot dining room, a gymnasium and 29 new classrooms including four science labs and instructional intervention rooms.

La Vergne Middle School Principal Dr. Cary Holman credited all the county leaders who championed the need for the addition and thanked them for supporting the continued success of the school.

“We see that as our county continues to grow, so do our schools,” Holman said. “What you can be proud of knowing is that La Vergne Middle School is a level five school, and we will continue that as we journey on each and every year.”

La Vergne Middle School currently serves more than 1,100 students in grades six through eight.