New School, New Problems

Cody Meyerson, a fourth grader, will always remember the good times he had at Oakdale Elementary School. Things like performing gymnastics routines on the stage for the school at school the talent show, and banging the drums in the music room that had stood for over 150 years on top of a hill are things he will never forget. While these memories will stay with Meyerson forever, the building in which they occurred in no longer exists.

“It was a good school,” Meyerson said. “I’ll always remember it.”

This summer, Oakdale was decommissioned and demolished in order to construct a new building, which is expected to be completed in spring of 2018. Oakdale is the first of three elementary schools to be remodeled over the next several years. During these renovations the school’s students and staff will temporarily move to the old Valley View Middle School, which is now known as the high school’s West Campus. West Campus was remodeled last year and over the summer in order to make it more suitable for elementary school students.

As some might expect, students have been struggling more than usual to adjust to their new surroundings. Rebecca Kratky, a sixth grade teacher at Oakdale, has seen firsthand the struggle of her students adapting to their environment.

“Typically in sixth grade we do spend time teaching procedures and expectations that first day, but we don’t have to focus so much on where the bathrooms are or where the cafeteria is. Everything was completely new so we had to take a lot of time to go over procedures and expectations,” Kratky said.

Oakdale has also implemented new security measures that are used more at the beginning and end of the day in order to keep parents out of the building. There is now a semicircle of cones outside of every entrance approximately 10 feet away from the school that only students and staff can pass through during pickoff and drop-off times. This security measure was put in place by the new principal, Glen Jagels. Some parents were upset they are longer able to walk their kids to their classroom, while others, such as Jenny Meyerson mother of Cody Meyerson, thinks this extra line of caution is a good one.

“I think it fosters more independence for the kids that they go in by themselves,” she said.

Another concern for some parents was that the alternative school is also located in the basement of the West Campus.  To combat this fear, the school put in place a monitor to make sure the kids in that attended the alternative school stayed downstairs and didn’t have access to the ground floor where the elementary school is temporarily being held.

“I know a lot of people were bothered by it, but I think that any parent would be satisfied [now],” Jenny Meyerson said.