By Julie McCay Turner
In a late August message to parents Principal Beth Benoit wrote, “Davis School has had an unexpected surge in the kindergarten population during the past two registration periods, needing us to increase the number of kindergarten and first grade classrooms.”
Bedford’s Lt. Eleazer Davis School serves children in kindergarten through grade 2. There are 570 students at Davis this year in eight second grade classrooms, 10 first grades and nine kindergartens. Whether the current population bubble is an ongoing trend or an anomaly remains under discussion. Bedford’s census data will be examined soon so that the kindergarten screening process can begin in late winter.
“That the school is bigger than the building [can accommodate],” is a challenge said Benoit, “and we are using every aspect of the building to capacity.” Last year’s kindergarten class size grew to 24 students per room, leading to this year’s installation of two modular classrooms for the first grade in a move designed keep class sizes around 20 students per teacher. The modular classrooms also preserve the school’s art and music programs in dedicated classrooms.
Until the school’s modular classrooms were student-ready in late September, two of the first grade classes met in unusual venues: the computer lab and half of the school’s gym. Students created an ongoing series of drawings that captured the construction progress while they waited to move in.
The modular classrooms are reached through one of the Orange Pod’s existing hallways, and turn out to be full of light and ongoing student projects, similar to the other, traditional classrooms at Davis. The exterior sheathing color, chosen by the school’s Facilities Department, might well be termed Bedford Bucs Blue.
Benoit finds great joy in “the excitement of seeing little kids start to take responsibility for their learning and get excited about the different topics they’re studying.” Another [joy] is the school’s “great faculty.” Although Davis School is home to a large staff and body of students, it manages to feel like an intimate environment. “Our teachers [create] a warm, welcoming learning community for all of the students in their classrooms,” she concluded.
Loading ...
