More room at Strathmore
Several facilities upgrades for new year
At Strathmore Union Elementary School District many construction projects are underway to increase schools safety and give students a nicer area to spend their day.
The district was finally funded during the summer for a long-awaited project to reconstruct first grade classrooms at Strathmore Elementary School.
The entire front section of the elementary school is currently gutted because it is being redone with new flooring, new walls and windows. The project will go on all academic year. They have added new portables for the three first grade classes that will be affected.
“We will be rerouting the first grade classrooms to portables,” said Shelly Long, district superintendent. “We have been doing a lot of moving and getting everything ready for the kids to start this year.”
Parents and students alike will be affected by the project since they are also building a new entrance to re-route everyone from the construction zone.
“When the project was first introduced about nine years ago we had plans to redo the two front wings of the elementary,” said Long. “It took until now to get the funding. Well, now the amount of money we had applied for then is not enough and we had to cut the project to only one wing.”
To comply with state law and for safety, SUESD is working on fencing up the elementary and middle schools to build a single access point with the purpose of having all individuals filter into the schools through the office.
Long said they have been getting ready for the upcoming school year by painting, cleaning and making few adjustments in the classrooms.
For SUESD, Bulldog B.I.T.E. (Behavior, Integrity, Tenacity and Excellence) is very important, as well as the schools safety and modernization projects.
Right next to the district office they have installed a new portable with the purpose of using it as a board room for their meetings.
“We decided to expand and have a new boardroom so it can be more accommodating to parents and everyone,” said Long. “We try to get children to come to our board meetings and to have them do the flag salute and other performances they do through-
out the year.”
When the Strathmore Middle School was originally built, the building where the office is located was supposed to be the school library, but they fitted it instead to be the school office. This summer they worked on remodeling the office said Long.
“We also have the facelift (I like to call it that). It is a little remodeling being done at the middle school,” Long said. “We had adopted what the school's library was supposed to be as our office for many years, so we are just making it look more like an office.”
Long said they have made a new office within the building, and have added new counters and are currently expanding the work area for the secretaries and attendance clerks. The teachers will also have a new bigger lounge.
Students can also expect new additional basketball courts at the middle school.
“In addition to getting all the construction projects started and some done during the summer, we also have our focus in academics and educating the kids,” said Long. “We have a character and culture program. For the Pre-school it's the Bullpuppy Growl, the elementary is the Bullpup Way and the middle school is the Bulldog Bite.”
This year at the middle school they painted a sign that says “Home of the Bulldogs” in the gymnasium with the intent of making the kids feel pride in their school mascot, Long said.
“I think we provide an extremely well-rounded program for the kids. We take good care of kids; they are safe here, they do well here and they are polite,” said Long. “We know our kids well enough to tell when they are not acting right and we figure out what is going on in addition to educating them and providing a safe and wellmaintained campus.”