GREENSBORO, N.C. — Slowly but surely, Peeler Elementary School is coming down.
It's been three years since the school was badly damaged in a tornado and a month after someone intentionally set it on fire. It's a new beginning for the school, but its still bittersweet for former students and their parents.
Local musician Bunny June's career started with a push from her years at Peeler, which had a performing arts focus.
"I jokingly called it the hippie art kids school because they were pretty open and understanding about a lot," June said. "It definitely helped shape me into who I am today so I owe that school quite a bit."
It also made an impact on Ashley Neubauer's daughter.
"She is now a musical theater kid. She loves doing musicals, dancing, singing and theater and I know that a lot of that was born at Peeler," Neubauer said.
Friday the school once filled with music was being torn apart to a chorus of demolition trucks.
It's the latest hit for the school, first badly damaged by a tornado in 2018, putting it on the list to be torn down.
Vandals struck it last year. Then an arsonist last month forced Guilford County to begin demolition sooner than it planned.
It will make room for a new Peeler Elementary which is hard for Neubauer to think about.
"I know that they're going to rebuild and it's supposed to be an amazing building from what I've heard. It's just not gonna be the same," Neubauer said.
Still they are hopeful it re-energizes the neighborhood around the school which is still recovering after the tornado.
"I wouldn't look at this necessarily as an ending per se, but more as a transformation and a new beginning," June said.
The district hopes to finish demolition in January and open the new school in 2024. We could get our first look at the designs in February.