Colorado school gets makeover with grant money through CU Boulder partnership

Principal Marina Orozco-Ngu of University Hill Elementary in Boulder says, toward the end of the school year last year, she got a call from the College Football Playoff Foundation that nearly knocked her off her feet.

"They told me that they wanted to makeover one of our spaces at our school, and that the grant was going to cover $50,000 worth of furniture and design services," Orozco-Ngu said. "I was amazed. I was very surprised at first."

To help celebrate CU's homecoming, Extra Yard for Teachers and the College Football Playoff Foundation partnered with CU Athletics and the Big 12 Conference to give three classrooms a makeover at University Hill.

Principal Orozco-Ngu says the decision to choose which classrooms to makeover was easy.

"We chose the library because it's one of the common spaces that everyone in our community uses," Orozco-Ngu said. " So our students use it on a daily basis. Our teachers use it a lot. We have our staff meetings in there, and we often invite our community, our parent community, to come in and have meetings in there as well."

The library got an overall facelift, but they also created a flex space, that can be used for activities, instruction or presentations and a quiet space that allows students to get some peace. The Big 12 says this is the biggest makeover its ever done.

"To have these moments where kids are just kids and excited, we love it," said Jenn Hunter Chief, impact officer at the Big 12.

Recently, a grand opening celebration was held in the library with the kids, CU student athletes and Chip the Buffalo, where the consortium handed out even more money and prizes.

"This is just our way to really give back, also in partnership with CU," Hunter said. "They have done such an amazing job."

Principal Orozco-Ngu says the end results surpassed her expectations.

"I absolutely love it. I think from the design phase, where we were thinking about what furniture would work in there, colors and the different levels of the furniture," Orozco. "Higher tables, lower tables, type of seating. The reading tree that's in there. Now, all of that looks very, very beautiful."

In addition to the makeover, students got water bottles and other goodies, and the principal and a retiring teacher each received $1,000 to spend on whatever they like for the school.