Published: August 14, 2008 12:03 pm            

Jeffersonville High School students deal with ongoing construction on first day of school

Cari Robinson is just one of the many seniors who have attended Jeffersonville High School since her freshman year.

In that time, she’s grown accustomed to it and knew her way around every section very well.

Now, with parts of the school completely shut down due to construction and classes being temporarily held in areas that were never used for classrooms before, she is all turned around.

“I feel like I’ve just been thrown into a new school,” she said.

She isn’t the only one. When Principal Steve Morris stood in a hallway outside the cafeteria Wednesday during a 5-minute passing time, more than a dozen students stopped and asked for directions to their next class — and not all were freshman.

On their first day of school, students were not only learning how to get to and from classes, but also how to manage with the ongoing construction around them.

In Judy Brooner’s German class, her group of students quietly sat as she talked about how her room has changed.

Just last week, the floor was partially covered with water and the rest with dirt.

Now, the gray concrete floor was dry, clean and decorated with two of her rugs from home.

As she was talking, a loud crashing sound from overhead filled the room.

All the students jumped in their seats and looked up at the ceiling, which could be seen through since it was missing about half of its tiles.

“One of these days I swear someone is going to fall through,” freshman Shelby Morgan exclaimed as she examined the ceiling.

Morris said the sounds and aesthetics of the school are just part of the process. He said the biggest issue right now is having the same amount of students in the hallways during passing time with less space, due to the closures and the new spaces not being completed yet.

“We are really trying to emphasize to stay to the right and keep moving, like driving,” Morris said, as he watched the hundreds of students hurriedly walk pass him on their way to their classes.

He said to help students get to and from classes in the five-minute passing times, the school is allowing backpacks to be used.

“You can get from point A to point B in five minutes if you want to,” Morris said, looking at the lingering students in the hallway remaining about three minutes after the bell for class rang. “Some people, we have to convince that they want to.”

He said for the first couple of days of school, administrators will be lenient on students who are tardy. However, he said after that they will be more strict, since students should know their way around.

Morris said it is all about adapting — something he said everyone seems to be doing very well.

“We can adjust,” Robinson said. “I can adjust.”

Patrick Wentworth, who teaches English, said all he needs are the basics and, with that, he can teach anywhere.

However, he said this process is definitely a work in progress.

“It’s a little more hectic than previous years, but I think it will all be worth it when we get to the end result and you have to get there somehow,” Wentworth said.

That journey is also put into a new motto — placed on banners and signs throughout the school and on staff T-shirts — reading: The road to success is always under construction.

That road will take a while longer to reach its destination. The project is expected to take 30 months and it just started toward the end of last school year.

        

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