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Parents ask Ashland schools to ‘get to work’ By Kevin Opsahl Jul 22, 2022 01:00 AM A A Ashland parents say temporary school site at Walker Elementary is too sterile and lacks amenities, ask school board to make improvements Mobile offices and classrooms next to ScienceWorks Hands-on Museum in Ashland are being used while Walker Elementary School is remodeled. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] Walker Elementary School under construction in Ashland. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] Some Walker Elementary School parents are frustrated over Ashland School District’s apparently slow response to making improvements to the school’s temporary site, with at least one parent threatening to leave the district if conditions don’t improve by the start of the new school year. The elementary school, at 364 Walker Ave., is in the midst of a multimillion dollar renovation expected to be completed in April 2023. At the beginning of the last school year, students, faculty and administrators there moved to a network of modular classrooms, known as “Walker Village,” next to ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum on East Main Street. The christening of the modular units began with a fall ice cream social — in which the superintendent got a pie in the face for good fun. But Mail Tribune interviews suggest it has not always been a good time for students learning at Walker Village. Parents cite the lack of a playground, covered outdoor spaces and a spot to eat, in addition to an overgrown field used for physical activities. The parents also are skeptical the school’s renovation will be completed on time, despite assurances from district officials that the April 17, 2023, date is "not arbitrary.” Gabriel Howe, who has a third- and fifth-grader attending Walker, told the school board at its July 11 meeting that he is one of a growing number of parents who would take their kids out of the district if officials do not act to improve the temporary space. “We have less than two months before school starts, and site improvements take time. Get to work, and let’s turn that compound into a campus,” Howe told the board. “If we don’t see things moving, we’re not going to wait until the last minute to pull our kids.” Another Walker parent, Elizabeth Herzog, told the Mail Tribune that although she would not go as far as to place her daughter in another school district, “it has been hard” for her third-grade daughter to attend school in a modular classroom. Herzog, a single mom who moved to Ashland in part because she trusted the schools, said Walker students “deserved more than they got last year.” “It feels pretty sterile over there,” Herzog said. As a preschool teacher at the Oregon Childhood Development Coalition in Ashland, she has experience using outdoor portable play equipment, given the school’s limited space. That’s why Herzog suggests that Walker Village make cost-effective improvements, such as adding a temporary playground. Even simple aesthetic elements like murals and flowers could help. “Just a more homey environment for the students, because it’s not necessarily temporary for some of the students; they’re not necessarily going back to their school,” Herzog said. She said parents are not getting clear communication on the Walker situation from either the superintendent or Tiffany Burns, the school’s principal. Attempts by the newspaper to reach her were unsuccessful, and an automatic reply from her public email address said she would not be back from summer break until Aug. 1. That lack of communication and the progress she’s seen on the Walker renovation led Herzog to the conclusion that “we have no faith they’re going to go back in April.” In an interview, Howe said his children’s “biggest gripe” about Walker Village is the lack of play space. “Even those fields — opening during recess and utilized for outdoor PE and some outdoor play — they’re full of goat weed,” he said. “They come home from running around ... and they’ve got rashes on their ankles.” He contended that Walker Village doesn’t have designated areas for students to sit down and eat — something the district’s superintendent disputes. However, what is clear is that, aside from the modules themselves, the temporary setup lacks outdoor spaces away from the sun or other places to rest. “They don’t have shade structures; they don’t have benches for them to sit on,” Howe said. He also commented on the meager size of Walker Village modular classrooms, saying before students moved in, they were able to learn in smaller groups with peers who performed similarly to them. “That doesn’t happen anymore because they don’t have the space to do that,” Howe said. “That’s impacted my son quite a bit. He felt challenged and stimulated in being able to do that, and now he feels like he’s getting bored.” With complaints from his kids piling up, Howe decided he needed to start voicing his concerns to the district. But he stressed what he and other parents want from officials isn’t all that much. “We don’t need anything real special; we understand it’s a temporary site, and it might not make a lot of sense to invest a lot of money into it,” Howe said. “We just need to see … the administration trying hard to make that place as much of a campus as they can.” During the recent school board meeting, Steven Mitzel, executive director of operations for the district, said improvements are being made to Walker Village. These include adding picnic tables and indoor spaces designated for lunch; examining “strategies” to bring in more shade structures; and adding additional storage space so that equipment for PE and recess can be stored on site, among other initiatives. “We’re doing as much as we can to bring improvements to that space, and I think we’re on track to have all of that by the beginning of the school year,” Mitzel said. During the board meeting, Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove noted that Walker Village is temporary — a point he expanded upon in an interview afterward. “A temporary space is not going to have everything we would want in a school campus — it just isn’t,” Bogdanove said. “That does create some challenges. For example, it doesn’t have playground equipment; it doesn’t have as much shade as we might like to have. Some of those things are not as easy to correct, but there are also still some other things we are doing.” Bogdanove could not give a cost estimate on the Walker Village improvements, but he was not concerned about them getting done before the start of the school year, since some materials are ready to be redeployed. Bogdanove stated during the meeting that July and August is an opportune time to make improvements to Walker Village because summer school is not being held there; it’s at Bellview Elementary. One of many projects made possible by a multimillion dollar bond passed by voters, the Walker Elementary School renovation will provide an upgraded heating and cooling system, an expanded courtyard, a new roof, entryway, cafeteria and playground. Those are the kinds of amenities Bogdanove pivoted toward when it came to addressing the challenges at Walker Village. “We’re incredibly fortunate to have the community that we’ve got that passed a bond to help create that,” he said. Reach reporter Kevin Opsahl at 541-776-4476 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @KevJourno.