Portable classrooms might soon be a thing of the past at Kane

Post date: Jan 22, 2012 4:26:12 PM

If proposal is approved by voters, new additions would bring all members of Cougar family together under one roof

Richard Kane Elementary School is the only elementary site within the Bartlesville Public School District which still uses portable classrooms.

The portables are for the school’s youngest students – three pre-kindergarten and two kindergarten classes – and are located on the east side of Kane’s main building. On a daily basis, the children march from their portable classrooms to the main building for their art, music and physical education classes as well as lunch. The library and computer lab are in the main building as well.

The marches can be a bit tricky if Mother Nature is feeling unruly, hitting the area with particularly cold or rainy weather. In the event of a tornado warning, the students are transferred from the portable classrooms into the main building.

“It would be nice,” notes principal Shelly White, “to have all of the children together under one roof.”

That might soon be the case at Kane. One of the main features of the proposed school bond issue, which is due to go before voters on August 28, is a classroom addition at Kane. It would feature four-classroom “pods” for the school’s pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, the same type that are offered at three elementary sites within the district – Ranch Heights, Wayside and Woodrow Wilson.

Under the parameters of the plan, a pre-kindergarten area would be constructed which would feature a commons area with four classrooms clustered around it. Each of the rooms would open into the commons area, making it easy for the classes to work together and for the respective teachers to collaborate. The same setting would be utilized for the kindergarten area. All of the new construction would be added to the east side of the Kane building, toward where the portables can currently be found.

As part of the school bond issue of 2001, early childhood pods areas were built at Ranch Heights, Wayside and Wilson. The new additions at Ranch Heights debuted in August of 2010, and the curtain was raised on the updates at Wayside and Wilson a year later.

White, who used to teach at Wilson, has toured the early childhood pod areas at both sites and most certainly likes what she has seen.

“I want our students here at Kane to have the same type of early childhood wings,” says White. “Those wings are incredible. Our community has done a great job of adopting and utilizing those early childhood wings. I want our early childhood kids here at Kane to have that same type of great learning environment.”

Kane currently has three pre-kindergarten classes and four at the kindergarten level. Thus, all of the school’s pre-K children are in portable classrooms while half of the kindergarteners are. The portables have been in use for a long time at the school and are most certainly showing signs of age. They can be drafty during the fall and winter, and have had air-conditioning problems during the warmer months.

“The district has tried hard to address those issues because we want all of our students to have a comfortable, optimal learning environment,” says White. “But the portables are just getting old.”

The new early childhood pods at Ranch Heights, Wayside and Wilson have been embraced at their respective schools. They feature up-to-date furniture, equipment and technology. In addition, the commons areas make it easy for students from one class to interact with those of another, helping the young children to develop their social skills.

“The new bond issue will provide Kane’s Pre-K and K students with brand-new classrooms designed specifically to meet their unique learning needs,” says BPSD director of elementary education Dianne Martinez. “We all eagerly await the day when we can say goodbye to the Kane portables. The early childhood pod will be a huge improvement to the Kane facility.”

The Kane Cougar family features approximately 525 students and around 60 staff members. Soon, they might just be together under one roof.