WOODSFIELD, Ohio

In August, NEWS9 took a trip to the newly opened Woodsfield Elementary School. Across the parking lot, the future Monroe Central High School was still under construction.

Fast forward nearly two months. High school students now have a brand new building for the first time. For the last 18 years, Monroe Central operated out of portable buildings, with no actual facility for students and faculty to call their own.

"Since 1994, we've been at the Swiss Hills campus, we really haven’t had a high school," Principal Jerry Calder said.

"It's just so nice to be in the new school and have an actual facility," senior Laikyn Craycraft said.

This building was first voted on and approved four years ago, and on Monday, students moved in.

"For that nine miles into Woodsfield, we had a caravan about two miles long," Calder said.

Kids were greeted with a surprise. Students at Woodsfield Elementary were waiting for them.

"They were waiting for us and cheering us and holding up signs," Calder said.

The reaction to the new school was overwhelming for many.

"I cried whenever I walked in because it was just so weird seeing our Seminole head in the gym and then having an actual school," senior Devon Jones said.

Monroe Central High School is now complete with dozens of brand new features, including computer labs and a gymnasium.

School officials said they're excited for the partnership between Monroe Central and Woodsfield Elementary schools, now neighbors. For those who were behind this project from the very beginning, perhaps the most rewarding part of it all was the reaction from some very appreciative students.