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Time to move on By Amber Fossen Ashland Daily Tidings It's almost time for a teary good-bye at Briscoe. The 53-year-old elementary school will close its doors at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday - ending decades of lessons, recesses, cafeteria lunches and class field trips. As the Ashland School District prepares to shutter the historic site, the Briscoe community is preparing for the grief, move and adjustment that will follow. Students in teacher Karen Scott's fourth grade class wave during one of their final pictures together before heading off to fifth grade next year in new schools. Ashland Daily Tidings/DENISE BARATTA For Briscoe principal Michelle Zundel, each day at Briscoe is something to hold on to. "We recognize that every day matters," Zundel said. "No one's lost sight of that here. I think that as we approach each of these last music assemblies, the last Thursday cinnamon rolls, it's bittersweet." As end-of-the-year activities draw to a close, students, teachers and parents already feel the impact of the closure. "Every year we have this graduation where they show baby pictures and it was only one year away from my turn," said fourth-grader Angelica Florio,10, who was looking forward to the event. Florio will be attending Walker Elementary, along with 55 other Briscoe students. Another 110 students will transfer to Helman, according to school officials. The division has not gone unnoticed. Eleven-year-old Hannah Ewing - who sold lemonade with classmate Sophie Javna to help raise funds to keep Briscoe open - said she worries her friendships will fade. "One year, I remember it was really hard because one of my friends was in another class. We saw each other at recess but it kind of broke up our friendship," the fourth-grader said, adding she fears the same might happen if she goes to a different school than some of her friends. Fourth grade student Ursula Petersen,11, who has attended Briscoe since kindergarten, also worries about losing friendships. "I'm just worried about when we get split up I might not see my friends if they go to Walker unless we do activities together," she said, adding she'll be attending Helman next year. "If I could, I would stay at Briscoe. I think everyone would." For mother and Briscoe site council member Kathy Petersen, the school is irreplaceable. "It's not just a school closing and people leaving," she said. "I think Briscoe School is the epitome of what every community should strive to have in a public school. Losing that is what hurts." Kathy Petersen said she knew Briscoe was the right school for her children from the start. "A few weeks into school, I was very nervous about recess time," she recalled. "One day my daughter said to me, 'You don't have to come at recess because if I fall down and get hurt, someone's mom will take care of me.' And it was true. I realized we had found the right school." The "right" school was tapped to close by the school closure committee last December. The Ashland School Board unanimously supported the recommendation to close Briscoe. Lincoln Elementary was identified as the second school to shutter should enrollment or financial conditions warrant, according to school officials. Michelle Stewart, a fifth grade teacher at Briscoe for 27 years, said teachers sat down in January to plan end-of-the year details after learning the closure would occur at their school. She said it's not only the Briscoe community who has to adjust, but the other elementary schools as well. At Helman, instead of blended grades, the school will convert to primarily straight grades to accommodate new students, Stewart said. "We decided at Helman, if we truly want to blend the two schools, we would go with a larger percentage of straight grades," Stewart said. "If we want to be one school, this is how it needs to be." In addition to coordinating classroom logistics, a number of transition activities have occurred between Helman, Briscoe and Walker to give students and their families a time to connect with their new elementary communities. However, fourth-grader Kara Wells, 9, said while the transition activities help, they don't mask the loss. "I think the school I'm going to is a good school too," Wells said of Walker. "It's just the fact that I'm leaving Briscoe and I know it's been so good." Ursula Petersen said she can't understand why a good school should close and wonders who's looking out for her best interests. "I would just like to say to the Legislature that I don't really think they care about children or education right now," she said. "Children are going to run Oregon one day so they're going to need a good education." As students wrestle with their feelings, Briscoe teachers have performed the special feat of educating as they always have. "We made a decision a while back not to let that (the closure) impact the end of the school year," Stewart said. "It's been a hard process but I think we've gone about it in a really professional way and that pleases me." "I think once we're with the kids, we put everything else out of our minds," fourth grade teacher Karen Scott added. "We're able to forget the pain of moving." Scott, who has taught at Briscoe for 17 years and will be transferring to Helman in the fall, said moving will be a monstrous task. "We've got an awful lot of packing to do," she said. "It's amazing what one accumulates." According to Nancy Bestor, a Briscoe Site Council and parent/teacher association member, Briscoe's library books are currently being distributed to the other elementary schools and classroom moves will soon follow. "Teachers, for the most part, are packing up their classes after the last day of school," Bestor said, adding that if parents or community members are interested in helping, they can contact Briscoe Office Manager Amanda Davis at 482-3616 for more details. The bulk of the move will occur June 16-20, school officials said. After the fifth grade ceremony Tuesday and the Briscoe carnival Wednesday, school will officially be out at Briscoe Elementary. "You don't really think about it but when you do start thinking about it, it really saddens me," fourth-grader Kayla Reynolds, 10, said. "But its just like our song says - 'Briscoe we'll carry you inside.'" LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. 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