LH Press Library
Getting a Campus Ready is more than Elementary
Dallas Morning News, by Kristine Hughes
July 20, 2003
Future fifth-grader James Clark is so excited about the coming school year that he's already decided what he'll wear on the first day: his favorite blue shirt – the one with dogs on it – and a pair of blue shorts.
He's also figured out how he'll get to school that day.
"I'm going to walk," the 10-year-old said with obvious pride. His mother wouldn't let him do that last year because he would have had to cross a busy six-lane road and walk a mile past several apartment complexes and wooded lots to get to school.
Now, he need only walk out his apartment door, cross the parking lot and enter the school grounds. James will be a part of Audelia Creek Elementary School's first student body.
The new Richardson school district campus, southeast of Walnut Street and Audelia Road in Dallas, is one of two to be built in that area by 2004.
Stately brick columns mark the entrance. A bridge across Trinity River's Jackson Branch provides the only access, and the driveway winds around a facility that looks more like a corporate headquarters than a school.
Anyone seeing all the equipment and construction crews still at work, though, might question whether the facility will be finished in time.
Ready or not, the bell will call kids to class on Aug. 20.
"We're going to have about 600 students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade," principal Harold Wright said, allowing that establishing the school from the ground up has been a complex process.
Since he started working for the Richardson school district in January, Mr. Wright has met frequently with contractors, traveled on recruiting trips, interviewed and hired new personnel, coordinated with internal departments to organize food and custodial service, ordered furniture, and created student achievement and discipline plans.
He also has met with teachers and administrators to design curriculum and with parents to establish a new PTA.
The biggest challenge, he said, has been enrolling the students.
"We're pulling students from three schools – Forest Lane Academy, Aiken and Wallace – so I've been working very closely with those principals to identify the students and discover their various needs," Mr. Wright said.
In addition, parents have been invited to attend an enrollment meeting Aug. 7 at Aiken Elementary, 12300 Pleasant Valley Drive in Dallas.
The most rewarding thing, the principal added, has been receiving support from district staff, school personnel and area families.
He emphasized that he hasn't done anything alone.
Jerry Walker, for instance, started compiling a list of needed materials and supplies with the help of all the department chairmen seven months ago. It now represents almost 8,500 items ranging from toilet paper and paper clips to lunch trays and computer tables.
"I've worked in an elementary school but I'm not an art teacher, nor am I a nurse, so I had to go to each person," said the director of elementary bond programs. "We know about the desks and the file cabinets and the chairs, but it's the little things."
He has three spreadsheets going but acknowledges some things were probably still forgotten.
Retired principal Bill Passmore – who has opened two RISD elementary schools, including the district's first in 1955 – said such hiccups are inevitable.
When he opened Lake Highlands Elementary School, the building wasn't ready on time. So classes had to remain for several months in the former first- through 12th-grade building, which now houses district administration offices.
His main advice for Mr. Wright is to find ways to communicate with the staff and community as well as to involve parents and students in developing the school's identity.
Audelia Creek's school mascot (a stallion) and colors (burgundy, black and white) have been chosen, but those who are involved in the school will decide its song, motto and other symbols down the road.
As Mr. Wright said: "It's a work in progress."
Reprinted with permission of The Dallas Morning News.
We're always looking for volunteers!
Find out how you can help out LHAIA!