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  • MAKESHIFT CLASSROOM: Pioneer Elementary School literacy coach Kim Roller teaches kindergartner Avery Smith about phonics in a hallway while other students pass by on their way to lunch. Teachers have been forced to hold some classroom activities in closets and hallways because the school is running out of space. P-T photo | Lindsey Ziliak

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February 1, 2012

Space issues at Pioneer Elementary push students into hallways, closets

by Lindsey Ziliak Pharos-Tribune

ROYAL CENTER — Kindergartner Avery Smith and his literacy coach played a game Tuesday in a hallway at Pioneer Elementary School.

The pair sat at a small desk for a lesson on phonics. But students kept walking through their makeshift classroom, waving as they headed to lunch.

Principal Beth Dean said this is normal. Pioneer Elementary is running out of space.

David Bess, superintendent of Pioneer Regional School Corporation, agreed.

“We’ve pretty much maxed out the space at the school,” Bess said. “We’ve filled all of the closets even.”

It’s a big enough problem that the district set up a committee to determine how to fix it. Dean said a permanent solution might be years away.

In the meantime, teachers simply have to adjust, she said.

The principal said the school has increased the number of programs offered to help students prepare for state-mandated tests like ISTEP. She and Bess said the programs are a big help to students.

“We want to do more remediation to help students stay at the achievement level we want them at,” Bess said.

The programs require extra rooms at the school — something Pioneer doesn’t have. The extra testing and classroom instruction instead takes place in hallways and large storage closets, Dean said.

Desks sit outside classroom doors at the elementary school. Dean said there are students occupying those desks all day long.

The superintendent said this can be problematic.

“For some of this testing, we need more privacy,” Bess said.

Dean cleared out one large storage closet that’s used when more privacy is needed.

But the items that once filled it are now cluttering up a classroom, she said.

Dean said most teachers face that same problem. Their classrooms are packed with items that will no longer fit in storage.

Technology Coordinator Missy Schrontz attested to that.

“We don’t have a free space in this school,” she said. “It’s a nightmare.”

Schrontz doesn’t even have room in her computer lab to store extra computer paper. When she runs out, she has to call the janitor.

“I don’t even know where he found space to store it,” she said.

An increase in Pioneer’s enrollment is a small part of the problem, Dean said.

It was made worse a few years ago when the school implemented full-day kindergarten, the principal said. In order to accommodate all of the students, the school had to use up two more classrooms.

Schrontz said the school also needs an additional computer lab to accommodate all of the state testing done online. She said the current labs are closed weeks at a time, so students can take the tests.

“State testing takes precedence over anything the teachers want to do in the classroom,” she said. “It’s frustrating, especially for the little kids. They look forward to working on the computers.”

Bess said the corporation will take its time deciding how to fix the space problem.

“We’re taking an in-depth look at the issue,” he said. “It’s not something that’s going to happen in the next month or two.”

Bess said the corporation is considering moving the three sections of sixth grade to the high school building, where there is extra space right now.

That idea is still up in the air, though. Bess said there are a lot of things to consider first.

Schrontz said both teachers and students have adjusted to the problem.

“For the kids, it’s all they’ve ever known,” she said. “They don’t realize there’s any other way.”

• Lindsey Ziliak is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5148 or lindsey.ziliak@pharostribune.com.

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