Welcome to our school.

Byline: Stephanie Warsmith

Dec. 19--When Edie Bowers' third-graders walked into their new classroom Monday morning, they were greeted by many familiar sites. There was Myrtle the turtle, their class pet, with her head poking up in her aquarium. The bean bag chairs were under a curved, glass-block window in the corner -- just where the students told Bowers they belonged.

And the pupils' names were neatly printed on bright purple lockers on one side of the class. "It was better than the first time I saw it," Tyler Norin, one of Bowers' students, said of his new classroom in the Resnik Community Learning Center. "Everything was in it. It was really exciting." Monday was a big day for Resnik students and staff -- and for the district. The Resnik building became the first new school to open in Akron in nearly 30 years. The West Akron school, located where the 77-year-old Fairlawn Elementary once stood, is named for Challenger astronaut Judith Resnik, who attended Fairlawn Elementary. Fairlawn students were housed at 400 W. Market St, a converted office building serving as temporary classroom space, for the past year and a half while their new school was built. Workers moved boxes from 400 W. Market St. to Resnik on Dec. 12, which gave…