Move over, supplies - storage rooms are doubling as classrooms. But such solutions won't keep up with growth.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published February 22, 2004
West Hernando Middle School principal Joe Clifford is not given to complaining.
As his school fills up well beyond its 1,097-student capacity, neither is the staff.
"I'd love to have 22 in a class. But I don't have problems," said science teacher Kathy Farrenkopf, who averages about 30 students per class period. "I find creative ways to adapt to the paperwork, to make it as easy as I can."
Language arts teacher Elizabeth Timilty acknowledged that space comes at a premium in the school, which had 1,316 students Wednesday - about 120 more than at the same time last year. But Clifford manages schedules to limit the pain, she said.
"I don't think we notice so much," Timilty said.
Over the years, educators have become conditioned to cope with the increasingly crowded situations handed to them, Clifford said. The principal's job, he said, is to make the most efficient and effective use of space and people, so the crowding doesn't overwhelm.
The general public must not misinterpret the drive to deal with crowding as an indication that the schools can go on forever as they are, Clifford warned. Student populations are growing, he said, class sizes must shrink by state mandate, and there's just not much more that campus leaders can do with the space they have.
There is a breaking point, Clifford said, and "I think we're very close. Next year, we'll be there. I don't think any more sardines can fit in the can."
School Board members are asking voters to support a 10-year, half-cent local sales tax referendum on March 9 to pay for new school construction. They suggest that the community cannot rely on educators' can-do attitude to forever solve the problems that come with growth.
"When they say, "We can do it,' it shows how well our principals and staff are dealing with the overcrowdedness to make it run as smooth as possible," said board member John Druzbick, also chairman of the Make Cents for Kids political action committee. "But they use weight rooms, storage rooms and conference rooms for classrooms. Something has got to give. And that's where we're at today.
"What's going to happen next year, when we add another 900 students (to the district)?" Druzbick wondered. "How many more storage rooms and conference rooms can we use?"
At West Hernando Middle, the answer is "none." Clifford has made classrooms from office space in the media center, the weight room and storage space in the gym. To add another teacher, he said, would require bringing another portable classroom to campus.
To keep class sizes workable, he has hired a team of "overflow" teachers who, beginning next year, will focus on advanced-level courses. Students needing remediation in math and reading get special, smaller classes, which in turn makes teaching easier for teachers in the core classrooms.
Clifford also has worked to limit the numbers of students that teachers work with by having language arts teachers also instruct reading. That way, they deal with half the number of students over two class periods.
Management can do only so much, though, Clifford said.
"While things are working well at West Hernando, there comes a point when the public needs to know that we are asking more and more and more of our teachers, and we are not paying them commensurate with what we are asking them to do," he said. "If you don't support the sales tax, it puts more pressure on the School Board to find other ways (to fund construction), and it will preclude them from paying a living wage."
J.D. Floyd Elementary School principal Marcia Austin said she has run out of space at her school, too.
Built for 982 children, the school enrolled 1,100 on Friday, she said. Nine new students had registered during the week.
Austin has turned the teachers' lounge into a classroom and taken every available space in the media center.
"Unless I go into the closets, yeah, we've used every space," she said.
Because of the large population, teachers at the same grade level cannot plan together. Lunch runs from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. With only one entrance, the parking lot and nearby roads are clogged with traffic every morning and afternoon.
Class sizes run as high as 30 in the upper grades.
"We can handle it, but it's tough," teacher Nancy Ingram said. "I have fifth-graders. Some of them are big. We are squished into a small area."
She said it is difficult to do cooperative learning projects under such circumstances. Kids cannot get attention quickly enough when they have questions, she added.
Austin agreed with Clifford that teachers are so flexible and caring they will make the best of a bad situation.
"If we become complainers, it would give the idea, "If they're complaining, how are they handling the kids?"' Austin said. "We realize we have to be flexible, and anything we do has to be in the best interest of kids."
They do have concerns, though, she said.
"We want to continue to serve every kid in our zoned area," Austin said. "We have a concern about how to continue to do that."
The ideas are adding portables, expanding the school size, increasing class sizes or building new schools, she said.
"It's a space issue," Austin said. "The reality is, there will be no space (if enrollment keeps rising). ... The services are still going to be provided. It's just find a space where the services can be provided."
That's the situation at Central High, as well.
Central, built for 1,185 students, had an enrollment of 1,760 Thursday, principal Dennis McGeehan said. The number is creeping quickly back toward that of a year ago, before the district opened Nature Coast Technical High School.
To fit everyone, the school has 13 portables on campus. McGeehan has taken several further steps to maximize the use of space.
"We are floating teachers," he said. "When they have planning periods, they don't stay in their classroom to plan or prepare lessons. Somebody else is using that room."
They can go to teacher workrooms, for now. But those rooms will be used for classes soon, too, McGeehan said.
Lunch at Central begins at 10 a.m., to get everyone through the cafeteria. Things run most smoothly, McGeehan said, when students with privileges to leave campus do so. Add in breakfast, which the school recently started offering, and the cafeteria is packed virtually all day, he said.
The student body is not stable, McGeehan added. More than 400 new teens have enrolled during the year, and about 350 have moved away. Just keeping track of all the records is time-consuming for the staff, he said.
"We're going over every aspect of what we do here and trying to adjust as best we can," McGeehan said. "But there's not a lot of flex."
Druzbick said he does not believe community members would accept such working conditions at their own jobs. He said he hopes they will support the sales tax, so that school employees, and students, do not have to continue to be "creative" any longer than necessary.
