Posted 10:32 pm Sunday, March 14, 2010
Students, Teachers Ready For All-New Clarkston Elementary
By EMILY GUEVARA
Staff Writer
It has been a journey for the family that is Clarkston Elementary. For the past year, students, teachers, administrators and even parents have watched -- sometimes patiently, other times probably not -- as construction workers built their new school next door.
Staff Writer
It has been a journey for the family that is Clarkston Elementary. For the past year, students, teachers, administrators and even parents have watched -- sometimes patiently, other times probably not -- as construction workers built their new school next door.
First, it was the foundation, then the walls and finally the roof.
But on Monday, the Clarkston family will move in, and it certainly has been worth the wait.
The campus is the first of five new schools Tyler ISD is building as part of $124.9 million bond program approved by voters in November 2008.
The $14 million facility, constructed in one year and one day, is state of the art.
SMART boards are on the walls in every classroom. Enhanced acoustics were installed because it serves as a regional school for the deaf. And energy efficiency is built in to all parts of the campus, most noticeably the automatic turn-off lights.
"I see it as providing a new dimension for education at Clarkston as we're striving to transform teaching and learning," Principal Kathryne Letsinger said. "Our programs are great, but our facilities have been poor. So I just think everything here is going to enhance learning."
The entryway alone is inspiring. Light floods the building through the skylights and windows. The high ceilings create an open feel.
Ms. Letsinger had a bronze statue of a young Albert Einstein looking through a magnifying glass placed on a pedestal there as well. He is wearing a graduation cap. She said it underscores the value of an education.
Twelve classrooms are located on the second floor, which is the level on which visitors enter. They accommodate students in the third through fifth grades. Prekindergarten through second-grade students are housed in 15 classrooms on the first floor.
In addition, there are five half-size classrooms to accommodate special programs plus specialty rooms such as the library, gym and cafetorium, among others.
Every classroom includes a SMART board, which is an interactive white board, along with a regular white board, tack boards and numerous closets and shelves for storage.
Classrooms for the older students are carpeted and have desks.
Classrooms for the younger students, who tend to make more messes, are tiled and include tables, Monte Robinett, the construction project manager, said.
The acoustics in the school also are first class, Robinett said.
Because Clarkston serves as a regional school for deaf education, all aspects of the school -- from the ceiling tiles to wall panels in the gym -- were designed to keep the building a lot quieter.
But it is more than the technology and number of classrooms that makes this new campus special. It is the small touches that speak volumes.
Each principal received an allotment for graphic arts to spend as they wish during the construction of the new schools, Robinett said.
Ms. Letsinger, the principal, and others had a vision for the campus that included a few artistic touches.
It was Ms. Letsinger who envisioned a courtyard with outdoor learning centers, a solar system in colored concrete and a sculpture with stargazing children.
It was Ms. Letsinger who used the graphic arts allotment to have inspirational messages painted in some corners of the campus.
A cougar's head (the school mascot) with the words "set your mind on success" is painted at one end of a hallway. At the entrance to the school gym, an artist painted several cartoon cougars exercising with the words TEAM, together everyone achieves more.
And the ceiling in the cafetorium is painted to look like the sky. The tiles are painted white and blue with some jutting out from the ceiling and shaped in curves to resemble clouds.
"A lot of planning went into this new school," third-grade teacher Michelle Bennie said. "That is something I really noticed."
Students and parents got a tour of the campus before spring break. A PTA meeting two weeks ago was standing room only, Ms. Letsinger said.
"The atmosphere was so filled with excitement and anticipation, it was amazing," she said. "But I tell you, it was the joy in the faces of students that told the whole story."
For some of the Clarkston family, the move is a little bittersweet.
On Friday before the break, teachers and other staff members took time to write memories and messages on the walls of a workroom in the old building.
"Throughout the day, I would meet teachers in tears as they came out of the workroom writing messages," Ms. Letsinger said. "It was amazing. The classrooms, they've been filled with learning and joy and laughter for these last years, the last 50 years."
Still, she said, they are excited for the new memories that will come.
"I think when you walk through the door, you're going to want your child at Clarkston," she said, adding that the same is true for the other new schools. "Our leadership is to be commended for their vision for our children of Tyler ISD."
