Preparing Chalk Hill School for the Fall

Chalk Hill School sixth graders will be taught on the second floor of the building next fall and the town Parks and Recreation Department will take up most of the main level.

On Monday night, Principal Bruce Lazar showed Board of Education members an overhead presentation outlining how it will all work.

"We will offer the same programs as last year," He said at the meeting held inside the Masuk High School Media Center, adding the building will be safe, secure and accessible.

Though there will be no fifth grade class due to budget cuts, Lazar promised all course offerings for the 275 sixth graders — including music, art and computers — will remain.

The school will still have a library, sharing the librarian with Masuk. And all classrooms will have a SMART Board.

Most school functions will be on the second floor, but not everything will be on the upper level. Lazar said students will use science labs, music areas and the gym on the first floor.

Walls are being built to close off access to Parks and Recreation facilities near the stairwell taking children to physical education class, according to Lazar.

A security system will also keep the two areas separate.

The school's front door will be moved to the south side of the building, where visitors will be buzzed in. Once they ascend the stairs, they will also need to be buzzed in to enter the second floor hallway.

The doors will have locks with numerical codes for teachers and administrators.

Parents picking their children up from school will still go to the front of the building, Lazar said, but instead of children coming out of the auditorium, they will leave from the gym for better staff supervision.

Lazar said 40 children were picked up by their parents last year and he estimates there will be about 20 this year.

Tours of the reconfigured facility will be open to parents on Aug. 23 from 9 a.m. to noon and again from 5 to 7 p.m.

"We just want to show our new digs and how they were cleaned up for half the number of staff and students," Lazar said.