Visitors to a Pinckney Elementary School open house Tuesday walk a new hallway at the school that shows the former brick exterior of the building.

Pinckney Elementary School students celebrated their own special kind of homecoming earlier this week. After spending the last year in the former East Heights building while bond renovations temporarily shuttered their own school, Pinckney students and families on Tuesday were treated to a sneak peek of the new-and-improved Pinckney, which recently wrapped construction on its $6.5 million bond projects.

The historic building, which celebrates its 85th anniversary this year, is the last of the district’s 2013 bond projects (totaling $92.5 million) across the district’s 14 elementary schools. Among the highlights at Pinckney: a renovated library media center complete with makerspace and low-level mobile shelving, a two-story addition along the building’s northwest side, learning pockets for collaborative study, updated playground equipment, and a completely remodeled kitchen that will allow cafeteria staff to prepare and serve food straight from the Pinckney ovens. (In the past, meals were delivered from Free State High School.)

Here’s a look at what the Journal-World saw during Tuesday night’s open house at the made-over Pinckney: