Principals Prepare To Open New Prairie Grove Elementary School

NEW WING WILL HOUSE K-2 STUDENTS

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Jonathan Warren was principal of Prairie Grove Intermediate School and Brenda Clark was principal at Prairie Grove Primary School. Now, both will serve as co-principals at Prairie Grove Elementary School.
LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Jonathan Warren was principal of Prairie Grove Intermediate School and Brenda Clark was principal at Prairie Grove Primary School. Now, both will serve as co-principals at Prairie Grove Elementary School.

PRAIRIE GROVE -- Prairie Grove Primary and Intermediate schools will merge into one this fall and be called Prairie Grove Elementary School.

Construction crews are finishing a 49,000-square foot addition to the intermediate school that will be used to house kindergarten, first grade and second grade students. The addition includes an expanded cafeteria and library and a new research computer lab for all students.

Parents are encouraged to go to Prairie Grove School District website and click on the link for traffic flow for the new Prairie Grove Elementary School:

www.pgtigers.org, click on New Traffic Flow

The newly named school will open with about 700 students in grades kindergarten-fourth grade. A pre-kindergarten class will be added to the building later in the year. The school will have 50 certified staff members and 10 non-certified employees.

Brenda Clark, who has served 10 years as principal at the primary school, moved buildings July 1 and she and Jonathan Warren, intermediate principal, have been named co-principals of the elementary school.

Leaving the primary school was harder than she thought it would be.

"I've been in that building for 10 years," said Clark, whose new office is next door to Warren's. "I was sadder than I thought I would be."

Clark worked as assistant principal at the intermediate school before being promoting to primary school principal.

Warren has served in several roles for Prairie Grove School District. He's been a football and baseball coach, was in charge of bus discipline for all grades and attendance for seventh-12th grades. He also worked as a teacher in the Alternative Learning Environment program.

He was assistant principal at the middle school for two years and has served as intermediate principal for the past seven years.

While Clark says she was sad about leaving the primary school, she will not miss problems with the building.

"That building is so old. We had trouble with birds coming in and making nests and laying eggs. The roof leaked. Anything you can think of it probably happened in that building," Clark said.

According to a sign on the school, the original part of the building opened in 1963, with sections added to it over the years.

The co-principals are excited about having kindergarten-fourth grade students under one roof and plan to work on promoting the school as a community, not as a primary school and an intermediate school.

Prior to Prairie Grove, Clark said she worked in a school with pre-kindergarten-sixth grade.

"I liked having the older ones take care of the younger ones," she said. "It gives a sense of community."

They have split some of the principal responsibilities and each will be over an area for all grades. Clark will focus on discipline for all grades and Warren will concentrate on Professional Learning Communities with the teachers.

Prairie Grove Elementary School will have almost 100,000 square feet and to prepare for a larger building with more students, Clark and Warren visited similar size schools to see how they function. They looked at cafeteria and recess schedules, classroom schedules and parent and bus drop off and pick up plans.

The two also met together for five days before school was out to discuss the new year.

"We took the opportunity to create and take advantage of making a new school," Warren said. "We see it as a new school."

The co-principals cannot say enough good things about the new wing that will open this fall.

The rooms are larger with lots of storage in each classroom. The younger grades will be in pods, four classrooms with a shared common space in the wide hallway. The pod area will be used to pull students from the classroom for extra help or group activities.

The pods are color coordinated based on the grade. Kindergarten is blue, first grade green and second grade purple. Plans are to add color schemes to third and fourth grade areas in the future.

For the first time, kindergarten-second grade will have a gym for physical education. At the primary school, students either used a classroom or went outside for P.E. The elementary school will have two gyms, with the new gym also certified as a safe room for bad weather.

The playground will include equipment from the primary school, a concrete pad for basketball with plans to add another playset sometime in the future. The school continues to raise money for the playground and has about $30,000 in its account right now.

The existing building also has received upgrades, including new light fixtures and an improved security system. A new roof is being installed over the existing building and bathrooms have been updated.

An open house will be held Aug. 13 and Warren is working on a new website for the elementary school. The school also has a video link on the district website to explain to parents about traffic flow for the new year. Traffic flow will not be the same as the one used by the intermediate school.

General News on 07/22/2015