RUMFORD – Youngsters from the Virginia section of town will attend Rumford or Meroby elementary schools when classes begin Aug. 31.
This will be the first time for them, and is the result of a change in use for the 50-year-old Virginia Elementary School. It is now the site of the district’s day treatment program.
To prepare for the additional students, the building and grounds crew has been busy erecting more walls at Meroby Elementary School, where about two-thirds of the 100 former Virginia students will go, and making minor modifications to Rumford Elementary School. All district transitional grade one pupils will also attend classes at Rumford Elementary School. They had been housed at Virginia.
At Meroby, they are also building an additional playground, which should be ready for use later in the fall.
Buildings and grounds director Tim Gallant said that more walls aren’t being installed just because of the additional students. He said his crew has been adding walls for several years.
When Meroby was built in 1978, it followed an open concept philosophy to house about 500 students. During the past few years, more walls have been built, and this year, carpeting replaced tile throughout the school, resulting in a quieter learning atmosphere. With the Virginia pupils, the student population will be about 300.
Also at Meroby, classroom space that had been used for the Pennacook Learning Center, which is the district’s day treatment program, was freed up for regular and special education classrooms.
Other changes include moving the high school alternative education program from the Mexico Recreation Center to the adjacent central office, new administration at the high school and about 16 other newly hired staff appointments.
Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said that as of this week, five professional positions remain vacant, although he expects the middle school language arts teacher and gifted-and-talented teacher slots to be filled in time for the first day of school. The district is working to bring a high school foreign language teacher from France and will continue its search for two speech therapists. A long-term substitute will be hired for the foreign language position, he said.
At the high school, a new in-school suspension room has been built, asbestos removed and carpets replaced. New windows have been installed at the middle school, and soon, Region 9 vocational students will construct a storage shed at the middle school to house kayaks and canoes received through a federal grant.
Hodgkin said 1,601 students have registered for classes as of this week, down seven students from last year at this time.
He said administration is focusing on continuing standards-based reporting for students. Rather than letter grades, student report cards show how well they are meeting standards as prescribed by the district and the state. High school students will continue to receive both letter grades and standards assessments on their report cards for the next few years. He said the district’s new PowerPoint program, which allows parents to log onto the school’s Web site to learn how well their children are progressing and what their homework assignments are, will also go online this year.
“This is all very exciting,” he said. “It’s a new adventure with a high level of energy with moving so many kids and getting them comfortable in their new schools.”
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