Students at Captain Johnston Blakely Elementary watch the closing bits of the groundbreaking celebration Friday at the school.

Earth-moving on the grounds of the current school for the new school — which will span 63,814 square feet (enough space for 450 pre-K through fourth-grade students) — recently got underway.

Bainbridge Island School District officials, school board members and Blakely staff, students and families gathered with the architects and builders of the new facility Friday to shovel ceremonial scoops of earth behind the existing school to mark the beginning of construction work for the replacement Blakely.

(Brian Kelly | Bainbridge Island Review)