Pacelli High School junior high students now have a place to call home.

Seventh- and eighth-graders were welcomed to big, new lockers, freshly-painted walls and their own classrooms at the start of the school year.

“Junior high used to be with the high school,” explained Mary Holtorf, director of Austin Catholic Schools.

A capitol campaign generated funding from area Catholic churches to renovate the second-floor, built in 1932 and not being used, into the “junior high wing.”

The dilapidated lockers were removed and replaced with Pacelli-green, wider models; the walls were painted a bright orange to appeal to its younger occupants. Students will choose a mural theme for an artist to paint at the entrance to the wing.

All 44 junior high students and their classes were moved into the four classrooms, and a chapel is located on the second floor.

Junior high teacher Dan Zielke, who is in his first year with the school, said he likes the centered location for the students.

“I think it’s great for kids,” he said. “It’s fun to come to a nice place.”

The students also approve of the improvements.

“I think they’re really nice,” seventh-grader Annie Holtz said of the lockers. “They’re a lot wider and cleaner.”

Madeline Kraemer, grade 7, said entering junior high is different but fun.

“The school day goes by pretty fast,” she said.

Eighth-graders Amanda Enstad and Paige Smith helped paint the walls one day over the summer.

“I wasn’t looking forward to it, but when I saw it, it was amazing,” Enstad said of starting school this year.

Smith said she likes that middle-schoolers have their “own domain.”

“Middle school is a time of change and fun in your life,” Holtorf explained. “But it is also a harder time. We just wanted them to have a safe haven.”