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2009-11-20

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Friday, November 06, 2009 12:00 PM

Photo by Elliot J. Sutherland/The Ottawa Herald

First-grader Alison Brown, left, and second-grader Linda Lattimer read a book together Thursday afternoon at Greeley Elementary School, 101 Mary St., Greeley. The elementary school combines first and second grades, third and fourth grades and fifth and sixth grades.

School cuts costs with old tactic

By RACHEL HAWKINS, Herald Staff Writer

GREELEY — Alan Quaintance is the principal of Greeley Elementary School, 101 S. Mary St. in Greeley.

He’s also the physical education teacher, the bus driver and teaches the fifth and sixth grade science and math classes.

Greeley is a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade building with combination classes. First and second grades are together in one class, third and fourth are together and fifth and sixth are together. Kindergarten has its own classroom.

“Everyone just kind of pitches in,” Quaintance, said. “The para-[professional]s are great. The custodian is great. The teachers are great.”

Quaintance said he wishes more schools would model after their school, both for financial reasons and educational purposes.

“There should just be discussion as a way to cut back on staff and all over,” Quaintance said. “You just don’t think about if that certain kid is in first or second grade. You just teach.”

He said as a teacher of the fifth and sixth grade class, you have to keep an eye on what all the students are doing.

“There are some things you can combine,” Quaintance said. “And then we have an at-risk para who can take a group of five or six kids and work with them a little bit.”

For the first time this year, Greeley Elementary School offered an early childhood program. The program is being taught by former second-grade teacher Alisa Self.

“This means we are a play-based school,” Self said. “Those with behavior or communication problems are in here, and there are model students as well.”

The program has a morning session with eight students and an afternoon session with seven students.

“We create individual goals for them in order to learn,” Self said.

She also said because it is special education, all the preschool students get to ride the school bus.

“They all ride the bus, and that’s just really neat,” she said.

Self said the preschool is the first of its kind in the community.

“The community has just been overwhelming,” she said. “When we had career day, we had so many people sign up to help. And we always have people bringing in toys or stuffed animals for us to use.”

Quaintance said while there is pressure to meet annual yearly progress reports, the teachers all enjoy working at the school.

“It’s a great place to be,” Martha McDougal, fifth- and sixth-grade teacher, said. “I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.”

Kindergarten teacher Mary Cubit has taught at Greeley for seven years.

“It’s just a small, nice family atmosphere,” she said. “I love working here. We’ve got good kids and good parents.”

Third and fourth grade teacher Kim Miller has 19 students in her class this year — the largest in the school.

“I used to have second, third and fourth,” she said.

Terry Entress is the first- and second-grade teacher, and she said working at a combined classes school is fun.

“I just love the small class size I have,” she said.

Entress said the first-graders in her class probably are ahead of other first-graders because of the help they get from the second-graders. She has her first-grade students work with second-grade students who help to teach them, and it reiterates the information to the second-graders.

“It really is a win-win for everyone,” she said.

Quaintance said Greeley has been a combination class school since he has been there, and he is in his 11th year at the school.

“It seems to be working pretty well,” he said.

While some teachers have come and gone over the years, the staff now is committed to student learning, he said.

“We used to go through quite a bit of change,” Quaintance said. “One year we had to get a whole new group of teachers.”

He said former teachers usually have left Greeley to transfer to a larger school.

“The people who have been here the longest are the custodian and the para,” he said. “But overall, it’s been a very pleasant experience, and it’s made me more appreciative. The kids get more personal attention at a small school.”

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School cuts costs with old tactic

By RACHEL HAWKINS, Herald Staff Writer

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article | Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article |
Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.