Improvements At The BES Building

by Thaddeus Flint
“First impressions can often be misleading,” was the theme, said fifth grade teacher Brenda Dixon, of a small play some of her well-spoken students put on for the Berlin Board of Education at the Board’s monthly meeting Tuesday night. The same could be said for the Elementary School building itself where the meeting took place. [private]Many residents may be under the impression that the old building is still a wreck. Certainly, plenty of work remains to be done, but phase one of the Capital Project has already made remarkable improvements to the school so many from the area remember from their childhoods, fondly or not.
“It really is beautiful,” said Pam Gerstel, looking at the lit chandeliers on the upper floor shining through bright new windows out into a warm Autumn night. Gerstel, who not only graduated from High School in that building but then returned to teach physical education in the District for many years, has long been vocal that the building be restored.
The architectural firm in charge of the restoration project, CS Arch, told the Board that the first phase – replacement of the windows and the asbestos abatement – went smoothly, with no surprises and was on budget. There was even $22,000 budgeted for contingencies that was not used. This will now be put back into the total project budget. Additional work to the building’s attic and crawl spaces will allow builders to “Jump right into it in the spring of 2014,” said Doug Dickinson of CS Arch. Actual construction for phase 2 of the $6.8 million project is slated to begin in the summer of 2014.
Of course a building in the end is just a building; its what’s inside that matters. Elementary School Principal Tricia Carlton played a few videos of teachers teaching and kids learning and everyone seemed to be having a pretty good time. The District is implementing the new Common Core teaching curriculum which encourages students to find different ways to find the answer to problems. “Things are really happening here,” said Board President Frank Zwack after hearing Hamilton and her staff explain the new curriculum. “It really shows classrooms have changed.”
Agreeable Meetings
Classrooms are not the only thing that has changed in the District, noted Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stephen Young. The Board itself is remarkably different. Consensus and agreement have replaced dissension and strife. Votes are easily passed with all in agreement. Half hour rants over various differences in opinions have ceased to exist. Meetings end at a decent hour. “I think that this year we are certainly headed in the right direction,” said Young. “We are going to make some real changes going forward.”
As a case in point, the Board passed, with all in favor, the District’s new School Bus Accident Policy. While there had been some questions on various points in the policy at previous readings, a fortunate bus accident in Petersburgh on October 4 proved the policy sound. “It seems to work,” said Zwack.
The only real discussion was on the District’s policy on personal electronic devices. This has been discussed before, and Board Member Jim Willis wanted to see what the latest developments were. Willis is concerned that limiting the use of electronic devices might put students off from reading electronic books.
High School Principal Dr. Catherine Allain said that the policy so far “seems to be going pretty well.” Student’s are largely not using electronic devices. It was previously proposed that the library could check out Kindles® to student who wanted to read e-books. Upon looking into this though it was found that there were only three Kindles® that could be used by the students.
“This is the electronic age,” said Willis. “I don’t want to inhibit anyone who wants to read.”
The Board decided to continue to monitor the current policy. Zwack asked that discipline reports be provided for the next Board meeting in November. This way “we can see if we really have a problem [with electronic devices]” said Zwack.
The next monthly Board meeting will be held November 19 at the High School. [/private]