Victoria Zimenko
Due to the ongoing renovations at Eagle View Middle School, 8th grade teachers and students have started the school year at Cumberland Valley High School, sharing the campus with 10-12 grade students & staff. As you can imagine, this has led to a fair amount of disruption and adjustment. Classrooms were taken, doors were shut, and a section of the school was temporarily closed off.
Mrs. Allison Makosky, an eighth grade English teacher from Eagle View, shared her moving process as emotionally overwhelming.
“I was in denial for a little while, knowing I had to pack up all my materials. Packing up was a process that took weeks, and saying goodbye to books and belongings for my classroom as they went to storage was a little scary.”
“I miss the community of seeing all of the teachers who staff 6th and 7th grade. I’m used to seeing them in the halls in the morning.”
Mrs. Makosky wasn’t the only teacher going through some difficulties. Herr Edward Henninger, an Eagle View German teacher, and Mr. Patrick Stager, an Eagle View 8th grade history teacher, were also willing to share their experiences.
“I am teaching in 8th grade for 1st period, High school in 2nd, 8th Grade in 3rd period and so on for the whole day. Since our bells don't line up, there are some classes where I cannot make it in time, and I have four different classrooms I teach in throughout the day. I have a little printout of my schedule taped to my laptop just to remember,” Herr Herringer said.
“It wasn’t something that we were looking forward to. We want to be up at Eagle View, but we know that this is the process. We have to renovate the building, we have to expand the building.” said Mr. Stager.
Mr. Stager also spoke about the emotional and physical toll of packing up over a decade's worth of classroom materials.
“I’ve been teaching in the same room for years. 10-11 years I have been in there. I accumulated all this stuff and then had to throw things away and box everything up and try to organize everything to make it easier for myself.”
“Some of the stuff, you’re like ‘oh man, this is so old, I don’t need this anymore’ and it just goes to the dumpster. ‘Do I need this or do I not need this?’. You had to label everything, get it all together, and then move it down here.”
While this move has created some problems along the way, some teachers will admit that it’s a nice break from the ongoing disruptions at the middle school.
Mrs. Makosky said, “Eventually, I began to see the positive elements of moving: no construction dust, no shifting classrooms, no noises, fewer distractions. Everything is turning out to be just fine.”
“I knew that moving down to the high school was going to be a massive pain, but the logistical chaos at Eagle View was already so bad that I didn't really mind.” Herringer said.
“Because of the construction, my room was demolished a few months into the school year, which meant I was travelling around from room to room for much of the year. I was lucky, two of our teachers lost their rooms days before the school year started. At least now I have a place I can call ‘my room’ and I'm not carrying everything on my person.”
All of the eighth graders were placed in the “White Lower House” wing, which means all of the eighth grade teachers get to be close together throughout the entire year. Mrs. Makosky expressed this as another positive aspect in the chaotic move.
“I do, however, like everything being all in one little wing. We don’t have to go far to see all of the eighth grade teachers.”
“One of the advantages we have here in the high school is our rooms are actually bigger, so we had a little bit more space to spread out.” Mr. Stager said.
Mr. Stager shared his perspective on staying positive through change.
“Not everything about a change is going to be negative, right? And if you approach it as being negative, you’re going to have a bad time.”
“There’s going to be some positive experiences with this. I think that’s the only way you should go into it, because at the end of the day, it’s not going to change. You can’t change it.”
He added, “When you’re faced with a change, how can you say, ‘Okay, I’ve got to go down to the high school, pack up all my stuff, and put it all back on the walls or out in the room — but what kind of cool new stuff is going to come my way?’ The room being bigger is a cool addition. Or when I’m standing at the end of the hallway when escorting the eighth graders to the cafeteria, I get to run into former students and say hello. So there are definitely some positives.”
Will all of the relocating and reshuffling be worth it once the eight graders return to Eagle View?
Herr Henninger said, “Eagle View needed to be updated. If they went about that in the best way is a question I don't know enough to answer. There are certain parts of the construction which I suspect will be insufficient. For example, it's my understanding the Auditorium will be the same size. I guess since it's in the middle of the building it would be kind of hard to make it any bigger. Still, though, the new classrooms they are adding, the bus loop, and the expansion to the offices and cafeteria are really a necessity for our district. Eagle View is much smaller than Mountain View and the district keeps growing. It was getting pretty cramped at Eagle View and we already had 6 rooms in outdoor trailers.”
These teachers showed their gratitude towards the high school staff, claiming that they were extremely helpful.
“Knowing that we had the support of our principals, and that they were gonna go to bat for us and try to help us make it as smooth as possible.”
“The high school teachers, particularly the librarian and the library support persons, have been really welcoming and kind.”
“We had a lot of support, and the custodial staff was awesome.”
And finally, despite being physically in a new building, Mr. Stager summed up the feeling shared by many of the eighth grade teachers;
“To me, this is eighth grade. This is where I want to be, this is Eagle View. Just gotta be in the high school for a year or two.”