Sat, Nov 21 2009
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Published May 03, 2009 12:34 am - With arms and eyes wide open ... Kingsville welcomes Pierpont students to school By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com Star Beacon KINGSVILLE — Youngsters who attend Pierpont Elementary are getting a look at the school building that will replace their alma mater next year.
The first round of visits to the Kingsville Elementary occurred Friday, when youngsters in kindergarten and first grade spent two hours with their peers up north. Nick Orlando, principal at Kingsville, greeted the wide-eyed youngsters as they got off the bus and walked through the double doors to the school. As they stood in the hallway, waiting for their teachers to take them to the classrooms, one of the students asked Orlando, “Where’s the elevator?” Orlando explained there wasn’t one but thought it would be a good idea. Sue Johnson, kindergarten teacher at Kingsville, paired students from each school with books. The students went to recess and lunch together, then the Pierpont youngsters toured the big school before heading back to Pierpont. Visits continue this week with grades two and three on Wednesday and four and five Friday. Orlando said the visits are just one of the steps the school district is taking to welcome the 110 Pierpont students affected by the board’s decision to close the building at the end of this school year. All of the students will be bused to Kingsville, which has the physical capacity to absorb the influx. He anticipates having to add one section of first grade and one of sixth grade to accommodate Pierpont students. That will bring two additional teachers into the Kingsville building. Orlando is working on the logistics of locating those classrooms so as to create minimal impact on the existing classroom assignments. Kingsville’s enrollment has been around 298, including open-enrollment students. By shifting some of the open-enrollment students back to other buildings in the district, Orlando is confident Kingsville will be able to accommodate the Pierpont students without having to reassign students who live within Kingsville’s enrollment area. “Kingsville has the biggest attendance area in the district,” said Orlando, who is looking forward to being principal of a school with up to 400 youngsters. Work is going on behind the scenes to ensure a smooth transition. Tim Essig, principal at Pierpont, sent data on each Pierpont student, which will be worked into student data folders. The data are used for devising class lists, intervention lists and other planning. During May, Pierpont and Kingsville staff members will meet to review these data and discuss draft class lists. Those lists won’t be finalized until late summer. Cross grade-level meetings are held so teachers from the previous year can discuss individual students and make the best placements possible. In addition to reaching out to the Pierpont-area students with visits, the school has extended an invitation to parents to be part of the Parent Teacher Organization. A family game night was held at the school to bring the expanded Kingsville family together for pizza, games and a PTO meeting. “We had approximately 35 parents and students (from Pierpont) attend,” Orlando observes. “It was the largest PTO meeting we’ve had since I’ve been here (2003).” Orlando said Pierpont students also are being included in the school’s annual discount amusement-park ticket sales for Waldameer in Erie, Pa. Meanwhile, Pierpont students this week will start to wind down the school year by participating in a long-standing tradition at the school: the grandparents breakfast. The breakfast with children and their grandparents will be held both Monday and Tuesdays mornings to accommodate the large numbers. 
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