3,400 kids in mobile classrooms

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3,400 kids in mobile classrooms

By Ed Pilolla

STAFF WRITER

ST. CHARLES - The first day of classes began in the St. schools

Tuesday with students shuffling between more than 100 mobile classrooms.

While the mold in St. East High School is eradicated, more than

3,400 students will be doing their learning inside mobile classrooms this

school year.

" This sucks, " sophomore Larsen said Tuesday morning as she and a

friend looked for Spanish class in the field of mobile classrooms outside

the former Wredling Middle School, now the temporary St. East High.

" And it's going to get worse, especially in the winter, " said Larsen.

Board of Education members decided last week to repair St. East

instead of building a new school. The high school was shut down in April

because of the presence of toxic mold in some areas, and students are not

expected to return until the 2002-03 school year.

While the 2,200 St. East students occupy the neighboring Wredling

Middle School building and the 43 mobile classrooms outside, the 1,180

Wredling students are going to school in 60 mobile classrooms nestled

between and Haines schools on the other side of town.

Six more mobiles are scheduled to be installed at St. East.

East High students will have seven minutes between classes in the morning

and six minutes in the afternoon.

" It's really confusing, " sophomore Lorri Bielanski said before walking to

Spanish class in the gymnasium of the temporary East High School. " Our

schools are too cheap. "

Asked how she liked her new mobile classroom, junior Demmin

said, " I think they're OK, but they're kind of distracting. " Before classes

began at 8:30 a.m., 6th- 7th- and 8th-grade Wredling students stepped off

buses and were greeted by red-shirted former St. teachers and

administrators who helped guide them to the correct mobile classroom.

The mobile units on the grounds of Middle School are now

considered the Wredling Middle School campus. Another 16 mobile classrooms

will be installed near within the next two weeks.

Sixth-graders have bathrooms in their mobiles while 7th- and 8thgraders

will have to use the restrooms in or Haines schools for the next

week or so until the new mobiles are ready.

Some classes even are being conducted for Wredling students inside

and Haines until the new mobiles are in place.

At 8:30 a.m., Wredling Principal Bob hl greeted the students over

the public address system.

" We look forward to a great, albeit an unusual year, " he said.

Workers have been installing the mobile units near since the

beginning of August, but performed the bulk of the work in the last week

following the board of education's decision.

From 5:30 a.m. until dinner time, construction workers raised the mobile

campus, and residents heard it happening.

" We were concerned, " said Sandy Foley, who lives across the street from

the Wredling mobiles on Indiana Street. " We were concerned, but we

understand. They had to do what they had to do. "

District officials and a few board of education members attended a press

conference Tuesday as the first day of classes began.

Superintendent Francis Kostel thanked and commended a myriad of people.

He couldn't think of any school district that had assembled as many mobiles

as quickly as St. has done.

" Once we start to put up posters, get books in there, some (mobiles) will

look like the teachers have been there for months, " Kostel said.

09/05/01