Many elementary schools in Blair County are packed with students and have run out of space. A quick fix are modular classrooms, but they are not just trailers outside the school building. They are much more.
“[The school] was only built for two classrooms per grade level,” said Ebner Elementary School Principal Kelly Clouser. “We are currently at at least three to four classrooms per grade level. That being said, sixth grade basically had no place to go for this school year.”
There are currently 576 students enrolled at Ebner Elementary in Altoona. The school’s capacity is 450.
One of the sixth grade classrooms was in our large group room, one was in the gymnasium and one was in the library until we were able to bring them over,” Clouser said.
“We were in the large group room, which is kind of like a mini auditorium, and the chairs were squeaky,” said 6th grade English teacher Mary Ellen Lang. “It was a little disruptive being in there.”
In mid-September, the school added a modular building. The building is not a trailer with desks and white boards. It is four big classrooms with the newest technology. They have MAC computers, Promethean boards, you name it.
“We have so much more space. It’s so bright,” said Lang. “The kids have centers that they get to move around and go to. …And they are able to go to their centers and work independently while I work with a small group at the side table.”
The teachers said they were working out of boxes before. Now, everything is unpacked and organized, which the teachers love, and the students in the “6th Grade Wing” like it, too.
“It’s so much different from the other classrooms that we’re used to because those are all different grades and they’re all just along that hallway,” said 11-year-old Nevaeh Vazquez. “This one’s so much different ’cause it looks a lot different and it’s just for us sixth graders.”
Nevaeh’s favorite class is Ms. Lang’s English class. She said she loves moving around to different stations to read and write.
“It’s cool because there’s not as many distractions, and it’s kind of like an opportunity just for us for the first year that it’s here, and nobody else gets to experience it yet,” she said, smiling.
The school plans to keep the modular building for four years. After that, they will reevaluate their need.
