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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us May 10, 2005 Walker closes enrollment Students not already signed up will have to pick another school, despite their proximity By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings It sounds like a laughable rumor or maybe a prank, but there’s truth to all of it. Walker school music teacher Louis Leger sings with kindergartners today at Walker Elementary School. The closing of Lincoln school next year has caused a swell in enrollment at Walker that is forcing students in the Walker district reaching school age to go to either Bellview or Helman. Photos by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings Children who live blocks away from Walker School may have to attend Bellview or Helman school in the fall. The staff at Walker is scrambling to find the space to accommodate four new teachers in the fall and Dick Streng will teach a class of fifth graders at Ashland Middle School. “Our hope is this will be just a one-year situation,” said Walker principal Michelle Zundel, whose school will be near capacity in the fall. “There is room for children in the public schools.” District officials maintain the solutions they’ve cobbled together for the first year following the closure of Lincoln Elementary School is a one-year plan, but it’s enough to perplex parents and cause people to wonder why the district chose to shutter Lincoln this year. “Our situation is, we live in the Walker district and we’ve been planning to go to Walker,” said Jani Rollins, who had thought her six-year-old son, Bryce, would start first grade at Walker in the fall. “It’s kind of frustrating to anticipate going to a school. We understand, but to tell us we can’t go to our neighborhood school, that’s disappointing.” Though walker can handle 450 students, the school district is loath to put more than 400 children in the school. Approximately 100 former Lincoln students will join Walker in the fall, another dozen will go to Helman, a few will attend Bellview and about 20 fifth-graders will make up Streng’s class at AMS. Because of the influx of students at Walker and the desire to accommodate those families affected by the school closure the best the district can, officials decided Walker will not be accepting new first- through fifth-grade students for the fall of 2005. Current enrollment estimates indicate Walker will be the largest elementary school in the district, with 400 students, including 50 to 60 kindergartners. Helman will have 330 students and Bellview is projected to have 250. Both schools should have approximately 40 kindergartners, although Ashland Schools Superintendent Juli Di Chiro emphasizes these figures — especially the number of kindergartners — are just estimates and are likely to look different in three months. “Until we get closer to the school year, it’s fluid,” Di Chiro said. “Things can change and they do change.” Frustrations Six-year-old Bryce Rollins attended the private Montessori kindergarten, although his parents had always intended their son start first grade at Walker this fall. The family lives up Walker Avenue above Siskiyou Boulevard on Hillview and they sometimes come down to Walker school to use the playground or attend school events. In April, Jani Rollins learned her family would get to chose between Bellview and Helman for Bryce, but not Walker, because 90 percent of the students at Lincoln Elementary chose to transfer to Walker when Lincoln is shuttered in June. “It was like a bomb dropped on us,” Rollins said. “We were floored.” At the time, Rollins heard the district would not provide busing for families affected by the Walker “closure.” On Monday, Di Chiro said that was not the case. The district will provide transportation for students in the Walker neighborhood who will go to Bellview or Helman in the fall, according to Di Chiro. A bus will take them from the front of Walker to the other elementary school they attend. However, some families still believe the district is making the wrong decision by closing Lincoln and redistributing students around Ashland. “I moved here because I drove by Briscoe and saw the kids playing there,” said Alan Parowski, whose five-year-old son, Kip, will start kindergarten at Helman in the fall. “That’s everybody’s dream.” Parowski wanted Kip to go to Briscoe, but the school was shuttered just as the family moved to Ashland in 2003. They also liked Lincoln and toured the school, only to find out it was next on the closure list. Kip attends Montessori kindergarten this year and families there have talked about adding first and second grade to the class options, though Parowski says it’s all speculation for now. “All the parents, they’re all parents who generally seemed to move here for a school system it seems we may not have,” Parowski said. “Pretty much we’re all dejected right now.” Squeezing in Although the 2004 Enrollment Projection Update for the Ashland School District states the facility capacity for Walker Elementary is 450, district officials don’t want to push the school’s population much past 400. “Given that population change for next year, I physically will not be able to accept first- through fifth-grade students,” Zundel said. A class of fifth-graders, mostly former Lincoln students, will take over a room at AMS to ease the load at Walker and keep students from attending three schools in three years. “I think the idea in having the fifth grade here is to avoid students making the transition to Walker and then to the middle school,” said AMS Principal Dale Rooklyn. After two parent meetings and with 18 students, according to Di Chiro’s latest count, Rooklyn thinks “it seems to be positive.” Parents were given the choice to place their children in the AMS fifth grade and will have significant autonomy to decide how the class will be run. For example, if students miss recess, they could arrange to walk up the hill to the Walker School playground. They will also have access to all of the extracurricular activities offered at the middle school, such as drama, band, orchestra and choir. The transition class at AMS will also keep anticipated class sizes no larger than 25 students at Walker. The school simply doesn’t have enough classroom space to accommodate 450 students and maintain the small classes the district prides itself on. As is, the rooms dedicated to the artist in residence, the English as a Second Language program, the SMART reading volunteers and the Title I-funded literacy program will be reclaimed for traditional classrooms. SMART volunteers may read with students in the hallways and extra time for lunch will be added on to handle the new students. Zundel is just glad the school added more bookcases to the library when Briscoe Elementary closed two years ago and 75 students and their share of the library came to Walker. There’s still some space on the shelves for more books. “We will all be Walker together, whatever that is,” Zundel said. “My hope is that we are able as a community to provide the best of all schools for these children.” Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 ext. 3019 or [email protected] DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Free Musick Downloads Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks Heloc Calenders 2005 Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress tcg student loan consolidation Home Equity Loans teleconferencing W2 Forms cortisol weight loss Diamonds Paris Hilton Mesothelioma Free Home-Loan Referrals Tatoos Website Design & Marketing Student Loans African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems Helzberg Diamonds Currancy Exchange Online Casinos Community Student Loans Tatoo Poker Games Homeschooling Auto Insurance Mortgage Calculator Mailing Lists Payday Loans Click Here .:Advertisements:. 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