Armenian School Opens New Building

To make room for its growing student body, AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School opened a new classroom building this fall at its Oakdale Avenue campus.

Additional space was needed to accommodate 132 fourth- and fifth-graders and limit class sizes to 24 students per room, said Vartouhy Kojayan, assistant to the principal.

The one-story building will house six classrooms, a faculty room and a copy center, Kojayan said. Each classroom will have its own computer, television and videocassette recorder, she said.

The structure is the latest addition at the 6.5-acre campus, which has six other classroom buildings, an administration building, gym, multipurpose auditorium and a playground, among other amenities.

The school has an enrollment of 950 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, Kojayan said. In addition to core academic subjects, students learn Armenian language, literature, history and culture.

With the new building, Kojayan said, the private Armenian school now has enough room for three sections of each grade.

This spring, the school expects to graduate its largest class of 66 seniors, many of whom have already earned college credit by scoring high on national Advanced Placement examinations in English, history, calculus, biology, chemistry and U.S. government/politics, Kojayan said.

Manoogian-Demirdjian School is owned and operated by the Armenian General Benevolent Union, a worldwide philanthropic organization that preserves and promotes Armenian heritage.