School opening just two weeks away

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The 2010-11 school session in La- Salle Parish officially gets underway two weeks from today, on Wednesday, August 11th, with teacher in-service training for two days. Students will report to classes on Friday, August 13.

Superintendent Roy Breithaupt said many changes are in store for students when they begin the new school term, including high school students in the Jena area getting to occupy the new academic building at Jena High School, a new cafeteria and some new classrooms at Olla Elementary, and the move of third and sixth grade students in the Jena area.

Third grade students who in the past have attended Jena Elementary School will be going to Good Pine Middle School, and sixth grade students who have in the past attended Good Pine Middle School, will be going to Jena Junior High School.

Jena Elementary School has been crowded since the start of the pre-kindergarten program a few years ago. When kindergarten classes were moved from the old Trout-Good Pine School to Jena Elementary in the mid 1990’s, a new classroom wing was constructed to accommodate the new classes.

However, when the pre-kindergarten program was added, no additional classrooms were built and school officials had to make do with space available, causing the overcrowding.

A couple of years ago school officials considered moving the third grade to Good Pine and moving the sixth grade to Jena Junior High, but JJHS did not have room to accommodate the new influx of students. So, officials decided to wait until the new academic building at Jena High School was finished and then move the pods, which had been used for classrooms and offices at JHS, to JJHS to house the sixth grade students.

The new academic building at Jena High School is completed and ready for students, so during the past two months, school employees along with inmate labor and volunteers, have been moving pods, desks, and other equipment from school to school to be ready for opening day.

Third grade teachers at JES packed up their materials for the move to GPMS and sixth grade teachers at GPMS did likewise for their move to JJHS.

Supt. Briethaupt said it has been a busy summer for a lot of workers, but it appears everything is just about ready and “we will be completely ready for opening day of school.”

“We certainly needed the extra space created at Jena Elementary with the move of third graders,” Breithaupt said. He noted that plans are still underway for a new auditorium/gym for JES, as part of the school board’s long-range construction program.

Students at Jena High School will be welcomed into their new academic building after spending the last three and onehalf years moving around campus for classes in pods and other locations.

“It’s going to be nice to have most all our classes in one building,” Supt. Breithaupt stated.

Built at a cost of $6.7 million, the one-story facility replaces a two-story structure, which was destroyed by arson fire on November 30, 2006.

The new building contains 23 classrooms, one multi-purpose science lab, and two computer labs with each lab having the capability of having up to 30 computers. Just inside the front door is the reception area which houses the office complex, with individual offices for the principal, assistant principal, guidance counselor, secretary, a test room, teacher’s lounge, and a special room designed for parent-teacher conferences.

The new addition at Olla Elementary School will also be ready for use when school opens for the new term. The $2-million construction project includes a new cafeteria complex built in front of the old school building. The new addition includes a new cafeteria with a full-service kitchen, three classrooms and restrooms. The complex also features a covered area for bus loading and unloading.

The construction project also includes the demolition of the old cafeteria, doing needed drainage work in the area of the old cafeteria, and building a new restroom facility at the end of the wing near the old cafeteria.

Summer months have been quite busy as school officials and employees get everything ready for the moves in August.

“We are looking for everything to go smoothly with the changes next year and the moves should improve the learning environment at schools in the parish,” Supt. Breithaupt said.

“We have the finest staff of teachers and support personnel to be found anywhere and little by little we are improving our school facilities to better accommodate our student population,” he said.

This is part of the July 28, 2010 online edition of The Jena Times.

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