By Judith Dionne
Staff Writer

On the outside, the Henry W. Moore School in Candia may not appear to be overcrowded. It’s not as if people driving by see a parking lot full of portable classrooms. But take a walk through the halls and talk with staff and faculty, you will have a different understanding of the school’s needs.

CREATING A WORK SPACE – Moore School librarian Paula Noon sits at library table, rather than her cramped circulation desk, to sort some books. Behind her is a new special education office the school built last year, shrinking actual library space. (Judith Dionne Photo)

Because of these needs, residents are being asked to consider a sizable renovation and construction project at this year’s School District Meeting. The $5.9 million proposal will redesign the core of the school, centrally locating common services like art, music and a computer lab near the existing library. It will also move the offices to be near this central core, renovate the aging heating and ventilation system, and add a gym and a music room.

The plan also calls for adding science labs, and for bringing the kindergarten rooms – now located off the middle-school wing – into what would become the primary-school area.

Joyce Igo, third-grade teacher; Richard Andersen, seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher; and Joanna Aleksy, kindergarten teacher, shared some of their observations about working in the environment they do on a daily basis.

Third-grade room logistics
Igo is a teacher who may have worst seat in the house.

Not only does she have the room closest to the gym/cafeteria and across from the bathrooms, but she has a very old, loud boiler in a storage closet. She also has school storage closets in her room used by many people.

“I counted one morning where 11 adults came in and out of my room before 10:15 in the morning,” said Igo. “I understand they needed supplies, but that is so disrupting for the children.”

Besides the interruptions, which are a regular thing, this third-grade class always has noise to deal with.

Igo said that when the students come down for lunch and a gym class is finishing up or another lunch hasn’t finished yet, they must wait directly outside her door.

“The teachers are very good about trying to keep the noise down but you can still hear them through the closed door,” Igo said.v And if the boiler kicks on at the same time, it’s even noisier.v Just outside is the playground. Igo said she keeps the shades drawn most of the time to keep down the distraction. She closes the windows during warmer months to cut down on noise. This then heats the room, making it uncomfortable.v Being near the gym during community events causes problems as well.

Igo said a child’s prop for a play was damaged last year during a community event. Coke was also spilled on her computer keyboard. Another time someone wrote on the blackboard with crayon and ruined it.v Despite the challenges, Igo said, “We do the best we can. We do have fun.”

Kindergarten
Aleksy said she loves the kindergarten room she’s in at the school. She just wishes it wasn’t located off the middle school wing.

“There are days when I’m bringing the kids to art or music class and the middle school students are changing classes as well,” she said. “It’s very scary for the little ones to have to pass by these students, who are loud and much taller.”

They’re very good about clearing a path for the students and behave well toward them, Aleksy said. She added, however, that the older students can use inappropriate language the younger ones shouldn’t hear.

She also feels removed from the primary-school teaching team. She said she uses a lot of their curriculum in a scaleddown manner and doesn’t feel as connected to them, being where she is in the building.

“It would also be nice for the students to see more of the teachers they will be working with in coming years,” she said. “If we were located closer to them, they could be see these teachers and students closer to their age.”

A final factor for Aleksy is the noise level. The kindergarten rooms are located near the doors the middle-schoolers use. When they come in from lunch, or on nice days when they go outside for science or come in from an extra recess, they make noise.

“The noise is to be expected, but it’s still a distraction for the kids,” she said.

CRAMPED – The Spanish teacher’s office is tucked in the back corner of the school library. (Judith Dionne Photo)

Middle-school science
“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Let me do it and I’ll understand,” said Andersen, adding that he didn’t make up that quote but teaches by it.

This hand-on science teacher said students are not missing anything in the curriculum because of the facility, but that he could offer more in the proper environment.

“The biggest problem we face is storage of ongoing projects,” said Andersen. “For example, we had a greenhouse experiment to teach the kids about global warming, solar radiation and ozone.”v His students had to revisit these projects daily so they had to be left out and took up muchneeded space. Andersen said if he had shelving in his room he’d be able to store these and other experiments away from students to protect them.v “Inevitably, these projects would be knocked off the table quite often and modified creatively,” said Andersen.

He doesn’t have adequate storage for chemicals or proper ventilated lock-up, so they have limited chemistry in class.v “I’ve been attending workshops under the No Child Left Behind act,” he said. “I’ve realized that there is more out there I can be doing.

Andersen said he knows if the students had a proper lab they’d feel more pride in their work and school.

“There’s just something about the environment of science working in a real lab just inspires students to do more,” he said.

Andersen said the middle school needs a multi-purpose room to have assemblies. He said this would be beneficial to them and make them feel even more separate from the elementary school.

He also said it would help the staff to explain middle-school wide projects to address the students all at once rather than make several trips to seven different class rooms.

Principal Michelle Carvalho agreed. She said trying to schedule the gym/cafeteria for any event during the day makes having physical education difficult and puts the students at a disadvantage.

Other concerns
Paula Noon, the librarian, watched the library she’s worked in for many years shrink to half its original size because much-needed special-education space has taken over.

On Thursday, Feb. 10, the state was in doing eighth-grade testing and had to use the library because there were no other rooms that could be used.

Testers for the state said this was highly unusual and that they would normally use a conference room, empty classroom or staff room.

The nurse’s office has problems as well. Nurse Sandy Leavitt said the main problem is privacy.

“If I have a student in here laying down, I can’t be on my computer because the monitor faces the bed and they can see it,” she said. “It also makes it difficult to have a private conversation if a student should need to speak to her.”

Leavitt said she usually has to take them into her bathroom so they can speak.

She said her setup with the windows is nice because it gives her good ventilation in the small room. But the tiny corridor to get into the office isn’t wheelchair- accessible.

Principal Michelle Carvalho said the school’s special education room is actually four rooms in one.

“We have occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language services in one room,” she said.

The renovations will really pull the school together, said Carvalho. It will address all the needs each grade level has.