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Thursday, July 27, 2006
Do portable classrooms make a difference in a child’s education?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are signs everywhere that school is just around the corner.
Not just the traditional “back-to-school sale“ signs, with the predictable displays of brown paper lunch bags and snap-seal sandwich bags, notebooks and clothing.
There are heavy appointment schedules for dentists and doctors, bands are practicing, and school grounds crews are visible. Kids and parents are swooping in to book stores to buy the required summer reading.
Salon 124 in Snellville says it always sees a bump in business starting in late July. Pecans, a Loganville beauty salon is advertising a “Back-to-school cleansing package.” Cleansing. Sounds nice.
But my favorite is the sign I saw recently leaving South Gwinnett High School. “Oversized load” the banner proclaimed, as the truck pulling a portable classroom headed out, preceded by a leader truck with caution lights flashing. South Gwinnett will have fewer trailers this year than last. Principal Berry Simmons says it’s losing 21 of its portable classrooms, which brings it down to 27 on campus.
The decrease marks the end of an extensive construction project that has spanned four years and provides 30 new classrooms, additional computer labs and science rooms, an orchestra room and a replacement theater, band room, attendance office and more. It comes too late for my recent South graduate, who never knew the school without construction debris. But it’s just in time for my freshman.
Wanda Yeargin, who oversees portables — among other things — for the school system, said Nesbitt Elementary is losing 24 portable classrooms, and Cooper Elementary gave up 37 this summer. The opening of Trickum Middle School meant a loss of about 29 trailers, according to a school report.
Not all schools are so fortunate. Overall in Gwinnett, the portable classroom count will be higher this year, according to school system spokeswoman Sloan Roach, largely due to growth and partly due to the state-mandated reduction class sizes. The number is constantly in flux but the latest estimate is 186 more. About 1,485 portable classrooms are expected this coming year, compared to 1,299 during the 2005-2006 school year, Roach said.
Portables have become a way of life in Gwinnett and other growing counties. Few people (parents, teachers, students) are crazy about them, although I have heard arguments that there are fewer distractions and some measure of protection from illnesses that spread through schools. The other side of the tale — aside from aesthetics — is that they seem less secure than the main building and provide less protection during bad weather.
Most folks have come to accept them as inevitable in popular, burgeoning communities, however, and the debate has quieted.
Now that we’ve had years to experience them, what do you think? Do portable classrooms make a difference in a child’s education? In what ways?
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