Four schools make sharing look easy
By Susan Nienow CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Lisa Billings/Chesterfield Observer Winterpock Elementary School students are attending classes in trailers at Spring Run Elementary School until their new school opens sometime after the first of the year.

Spring Run and Marguerite Christian elementary schools are giving "overcrowding" a whole new meaning this year. Both schools are housing two student bodies since the new Winterpock and Elizabeth Scott elementary schools weren't ready to open when the school year began. That also means multiplying staffs, buses and a host of other resources by two as students share Spring Run and Marguerite Christian until their new schools open sometime after the first of the year. Around 350 Elizabeth Scott students are also attending classes at the Enon Annex.

The school system plans to give parents an update on the progress of the schools' openings before Christmas break. The openings were delayed due to issues with obtaining utility easements.

But staff members are handling the double vision in stride, working to "make sure the kids have a special year," said Spring Run Elementary School Principal Sandi Blankenship.

Currently, around 1,300 students are attending Spring Run, which was only built for around 900. About 547 students will move to Winterpock when it opens, bringing Spring Run under its functional capacity for the first time in years.

In the case of the as yet unfinished Elizabeth Scott Elementary School in the Bermuda District, half of the students are going to Marguerite Christian and the other half are attending school in the Enon Annex. Most classes are being held in trailers - or "educational cottages" as Elizabeth Scott Elementary principal Joan Temple prefers to call them. Her office is in the annex. She's receiving help at the Marguerite Christian site from retired principal John Temple who returned to the school system to help with the transition.

Both the biggest surprise and the best gift for the Elizabeth Scott students has been the "restroom trailer" at Enon, laughed Temple. The trailer keeps students from having to go to the main building to use the restroom. And the "toughest thing was when we realized we weren't moving in November," said Temple. "We had to regroup … and order supplies that we had held off ordering so we wouldn't have to move them. The kids were ready to move, too."

But children are known for their resilience as evidenced by the statement of a kindergartner who said, "This is the best school of my life."

Carolyn Tisdale, principal of Marguerite Christian, said, "We have used every space in our building. The biggest hurdle was the excitement of moving and the letdown when we didn't." But Tisdale's outlook is always positive. "I was raised to look at the positive," she said.

All administrators are praising the community for their understanding, support and cooperation. Parents have faced their own challenges during the sharing of schools, including not always being able to come eat lunch with their children due to space issues. Knowing this is just a temporary situation has helped.

Logistics

The children who will move to Winterpock Elementary when it opens were already Spring Run students, so the school is familiar to them, explained Winterpock Elementary School principal Dianne Smith. But Winterpock and Elizabeth Scott administrators are already trying to foster a sense of school identity. At Winterpock, the school buses have magnets showing the school's wolf mascot. The students at Elizabeth Scott are getting into the spirit with their Scorpion mascot shirts.

Spring Run has operated with between 1,300 and 1,400 students before, so logistically, it's more an issue of dealing with two staffs and two student bodies than the actual number of students. It is a fine line between giving the students their new school identity and fostering a collaborative spirit.

This past summer was spent working on logistics so that students would be comfortable, able to navigate the campus and get on the right bus at the end of the day. The Spring Run buses all have an animal portrayed on them, so the students know they always head for the "cow" bus. Tisdale said Marguerite Christian has solved this problem by parking the buses in different locations for each school.

"The four administrators work well together," said Smith.

"It's kind of a think-tank here," she continued, explaining that they worked with teachers, parents, staff and students early on to head off any possible problems.

Though the students now attending the Enon Annex don't have a playground, they do have a physical education trailer. And the kindergartners are all eating lunch at the same time at Spring Run, said Blankenship. Not much is slipping through the cracks but issues do have to be addressed as they come up.

"These students deserve nothing but the best," summed up Smith. "We nurture yet celebrate."