Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Schools

New school provides a challenge for all

Challenger School focuses on math and science and will give teachers and students a chance to explore and develop a curriculum and learning style together.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published August 6, 2005

SPRING HILL - It could have been a concert or a county fair. Traffic was backed up on Elgin Boulevard. Cars packed the parking lot, and hundreds of parents and kids jammed the hallways.

The excitement Friday morning was sparked by what usually resembles the most humdrum of events: an open house before the first day of school. But this was no ordinary open house. For many, it was their first chance to look inside the $34-million Challenger K-8 School of Science and Mathematics. The name commemorates the Challenger space shuttle, lost in an explosion in 1986.

What they saw was a bright, clean new school that looked in far better shape than the overcrowded elementary and middle schools that many of the students at Challenger came from. The classrooms were spotless, though some were still filled with books and boxes as preparations continued for the first day of school Monday.

Parents and kids met their teachers, and strolled around, eyeing the freshness of the place.

Ann Basso, 44, walked through the school with her daughter, Valentina, 12, and a smile on her face. She was thrilled with the enthusiasm she saw from teachers, and felt they would be much more responsive than her daughter's previous instructors at Powell Middle School.

The teachers even gave out e-mail addresses, Basso said.

"Everybody's very upbeat," she said. "The kids are excited to be here."

That was in contrast to the situation at Powell, which was left in administrative limbo for much of the past school year with the suspension of principal Michael Ransaw.

"It was a messy year for everybody," Basso said. "It was tough to get in touch with teachers . . . they were very overcrowded."

As parents and students visited classrooms, they said they also liked Challenger's emphasis on hands-on learning. Jaclyn Clark, 11, said she looked forward to playing with animals in biology classes.

"I think this school is cool," she said. "There's pets and animals, so you're doing it, not just learning about it."

The teachers at the open house said that the energy of the student body had been a big reason many had been drawn to teaching at Challenger.

Eric Monier, 34, an exceptional student education teacher, said he had come from Citrus High School because he enjoyed the idea of working with kids who were genuinely interested in math and science.

"We're getting people who have a desire to excel in that area," he said.

That enthusiasm was evident in the face of Myles Kelley, 11, who was trying to decipher his schedule with his father, Marion, 52, who had just been elected president of the school Parent-Teacher Association.

When asked about his impressions, Myles, who is entering sixth grade, said: "It looks like they're going to make us learn a lot."

Then, he added: "It also looks like they're going to make learning fun."

Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 352 848-1431.

[Last modified August 6, 2005, 01:37:26]