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NAPLES — Beaming with excitement on the first day at the new Eden Park Elementary School, Christopher Ortiz strolled through the cream and olive hallways with his father looking for his sixth-grade classroom.

Not only was it a new school, it was also the first time that all Immokalee sixth graders would stay in elementary schools.

Instead of moving up to middle school where there is no space for them, the sixth graders are the first to complete one more year in elementary school before making the leap. Five Immokalee elementary schools are the only Collier County public schools accommodating sixth graders. Middle school is normally sixth through eighth grades.

When asked about their thoughts about staying in an elementary school, some of the roughly 75 sixth-graders at Eden Park said it made no difference.

Christopher, 11, said he liked the new school.

“I don’t care as long as we go to seventh grade in the middle school,” said Christopher, a former Lake Trafford Elementary School student.

His father, Felix Ortiz, said in Spanish that it’s the same academics at Eden Park Elementary or at the middle school.

Eden Park Elementary, at 3650 Westclox St., a 114,000-square-foot, brown and beige two-story building, welcomed about 600 pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade students for the first day of school, delayed one day thanks to Tropical Storm Fay.

As children walked to the cafeteria for breakfast, the front lobby remained busy with students and parents stopping by with questions about where classrooms were located.

The Immokalee school was one of three new Collier County public elementary schools.

At the main entrance of the school, Principal Melba Meriwether helped students locate their classrooms.

“It’s always a really exciting time for the kids, teachers, staff and parents,” Meriwether said.

Meriwether said keeping sixth graders in elementary schools is a benefit because they are at an age in which they may be impressionable and are seeking peer approval and will continue to be closely tied with their homeroom teacher.

Highlands Elementary School Principal Sean Kinsley, who has three years experience in a school that had kindergarten through sixth-grade classes in New York, says it works very well.

“It can be very beneficial for the sixth graders to mature before they go to middle school,” Kinsley said.

At Highlands Elementary, there will be two teams of sixth-grade students working with two teachers throughout the year, moving from class to class.

“I’m very excited about it,” Kinsley said.

Immokalee Middle School Principal Lisa Scallan also favors the new change.

“We can provide an extra year to students to be in a sheltered environment of an elementary school,” Scallan said.

Scallan noted the fact that middle school students are going through physical and emotional changes and are “ready to spread their wings.”

Yet, she said, it would be a benefit for students to stay an additional year in a more nurturing environment.

Immokalee Middle School will go from more than 1,100 students to just under 850 seventh and eighth graders this year.

The portables, which served about 150 students, are gone at Immokalee Middle.

Across Immokalee elementary schools, band programs have been extended into the sixth grade. Scallan said officials hope that it would benefit both middle and high schools.

The existing buildings at four of the Immokalee elementary schools have been revamped to accommodate keeping the sixth graders there.

Shortly before 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, while waiting in the breakfast line in the cafeteria, Rhitzalene Hilaire, her cousin Sarah Clinascales, and friend Barbara Vincent shared similar emotions about entering the sixth grade in a new school.

Excitement.

“It’s so pretty,” Barbara, 11, said.