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New uniforms and soon, a new campus

The clothing policy is permanent. The move to portable classrooms is temporary. And a bigger Tarpon Springs Elementary is on the way.

By JARED LEONE
Published August 15, 2006

TARPON SPRINGS - Five-year old Caleb Calo was so excited he was up most of the night.

He even tried to take his clothes out and get ready the night before his first-ever day of school.

"Can we go to school already?" his mother, Isabelita Calo, recalled her son as saying that night. "What is taking so long?"

Caleb is one of more than 570 Tarpon Springs Elementary students who last week kicked off what will surely be a year unlike any other in the school building's 54-year history.

Two major changes greeted students this year. One is a mandatory uniform policy. The second is the pending January move to a temporary portable-building campus while the school gets a major facelift.

The school will be demolished to make way for one with a capacity for 725 students. Ground breaking is expected to take place in late February or March, said Tony Rivas, facilities director for Pinellas County Schools.

Construction costs are expected to reach $26-million. That price does not include the purchase of 11 properties that will be part of the new school's nearly 14-acre campus.

On Jan. 8, Tarpon Elementary students will be moved to a group of portable classrooms at Tarpon Springs Middle School.

The temporary campus will consist of more than 40 portables and will be used until the completion of the new campus, expected to be finished in time for the first day of school in 2008.

"It's going to be tough for these little guys," said Helen Fatolitis, a kindergarten teacher. "However, they are like sponges. They pick up very quickly."

The new uniform policy caught some off guard, including Caleb. He came neatly dressed in a yellow sport shirt with khaki shorts. When Caleb saw the other students in their blue-and-white uniforms, his mother said he wanted to wear one, too.

"He wanted to really look like he was in school," Calo said.

Lucky for him, school administrators allow a one-week grace period for the mandatory uniform policy. And they also offer to issue students a uniform.

"I am all for it," Isabelita Calo said of the uniform policy. "It looks more put together, more organized."

Parents and teachers said the uniforms will be especially helpful when the students relocate to the temporary quarters on the middle school property, making the elementary students easier to keep track of.

For the kindergarteners, everything was new during the first week of school. Fatolitis led her class in two single-file lines - one for boys, one for girls - on a tour of the school that included stops at the front office, clinic, bathrooms and library.

This is Fatolitis' 14th year as a kindergarten teacher. Over the years, school life has changed, she says. But one thing remains the same for the first day of school: the cries from a new student getting adjusted.

"It's usually the boys," Fatolitis said.

But sometimes it's the parents.

"He is not even looking back to see if we are here or not," Calo said as Caleb joined his class at their tour of the library. "I'll cry but I won't cry in front of him," she said.

[Last modified August 15, 2006, 07:01:43]