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Students and staff are settling in to the new modular classrooms at John Greenleaf Whittier School.
As WHAV reported first last fall, the $3 million addition of six new classrooms were installed and offer a reprieve from congestion. They may be reused elsewhere if a new school is built. Principal Kevin R. Higginbottom told School Committee members last Thursday there is now more room for health, technology and multilingual instruction.
“The great thing about having six new classrooms that we’re able to move students into, which they’re excited to be there, they feel like it’s special, it’s just for them. They’re making it their home space, but what it also did was alleviate a lot of the congestion we had inside the building,” he said.
He added, prior to the additions, the library was used by interventionists and one of our instructional coaches. Similarly, technology and health teachers did not have their own instructional space and forced to move equipment, robots, biomedical equipment around on carts. The multilingual program had only a half-sized classroom.
The school now has separate math and literacy centers as well. Higginbottom explained, “Instead of all of those folks being crammed into that one space, they’ve been pushed out into two of the vacant classrooms. Now they’re able to see their students and spread them out a bit more and not feel as congested.”
Besides six classrooms, the buildings offer restrooms for students and staff as well a custodial closet. The building does not include lockers, but includes peg walls for students to hang their belongings.
In short, the added space has, in his words, “brought down the temperature.”
“I mean, the energy level, and I would say the sense of tension that comes from everybody squeezed into too small a space where it cannot fully be accommodating to everybody and their needs, it’s allowed us to spread out,” he said. “A sense of calm has really come over the building and we’re really excited about that.”
Higginbottom aimed to change misperceptions, saying, “I do want to stress that it is a building, there was, for quite a while, a misconception that these were trailers, but it’s not. It’s actually a beautiful new building,” he said.
Committee member Paul A. Magliocchetti praised the expansion, citing previous visits where he observed desks in hallways as “really tough conditions.”
Responding to member Mikaela Lalumiere, Higginbottom explained how administration and security split their time between both buildings.
“We do it in a rotation. For the first few weeks when we did not have the RFID card access panels installed, one of us was outside pretty much all day long and we would rotate and take turns, helping students get in and out of the building, there was a lot of concierge service, and there were days helping them get into the main building or the new building” he said. “We’ve been able to ease off that, but we’re still in regular rotation because we want to be present, we want to be able to walk through classrooms. Our security guard also makes multiple sweeps throughout the day and makes a point to go into the building. He checks in with each classroom.”
Mayor Melinda E. Barrett called the classrooms a “win for the students.”
Construction fencing, which still surrounds the building, will remain in place until permanent fencing is installed later this spring.