Geneva schools pack up for new homes
"How many boxes will be used to move Harrison's belongings to Coultrap?" asks a bulletin board display in a hallway at Harrison Street Elementary School in Geneva.
Good question. The safe answer? A lot.
Teachers were packing up the school this week as it prepares to move into Coultrap Elementary School for a year.
It's doing so to be out of the way when construction crews renovate Harrison.
Coultrap, too, is preparing for a move, into a brand-new Williamsburg Elementary School.
"The toughest part is packing things like artifacts -- things that are not square," said Cathy Campana, a fourth-grade teacher, as she picked through items in her work room Thursday. Teachers were given a two-hour slot, sending their students off to watch a movie, to concentrate on the task.
Campana asked herself if she really wanted those old lesson plans, seashells, maps, posters, curriculum guides, decorations, books, board games and markers.
"I found things from a teacher before me -- seven years ago -- which is kind of sad," said fourth-grade teacher Robert Luehring, who has been at the school five years.
The teachers will get some help next week from Geneva High School volunteers, Campana said.
"The tough part of doing this is you can do a little bit and make a little progress, but in the meantime you are running a normal day," Campana said.
For example, she can't pack her office envelopes because one of her standard last-day projects is to have the fourth-graders write a letter to next year's fourth-graders.
She's keeping her Parcheesi and Chinese checkers games available in case recess is rained out and some books for silent reading time. And then there's the usual end-of-the-year reports to do after school lets out.
Still, she supports the plan the teachers suggested. If Harrison hadn't moved, things would have been interesting in the fall. Four classes would have met in the gymnasium and the teachers' work rooms would have been used for special services like speech therapy, so other students and staff would have been traipsing in and out of her classroom throughout the day.
Not to mention how the noise, dirt, sight and smell of construction work would have distracted students.
Harrison is supposed to be packed up by the end of the first week of June.
It is unclear when Coultrap will move out. Work is still being done at Williamsburg and it doesn't have an occupancy permit yet.
The school board is due to reconsider a request Monday night to close the two schools a day earlier than the rest of Geneva schools to help with the packing. The board rejected the request earlier this week. Monday's meeting is at 6:15 p.m. at headquarters, 227 N. Fourth St., Geneva.
Meanwhile, the staffs plug away.
"You don't need to save everything. Pack light. Travel light," Luehring said.