With volunteer help, Normal Park renovates again

After a successful community-led renovation last summer of Normal Park’s Upper School, the campuses’ Lower School was feeling a bit left out.

So with $14,000 left over from the first project, Normal Park Museum Magnet principal Jill Levine decided to go at it again, this time using mostly parent volunteers to renovate the entire elementary school in one week.

Ms. Levine said that, in the midst of a sour economy, school administrators decided not to seek out as many professional builders and designers to give their time. Instead, the parent coordinator for each classroom was given $500, and many raised more money on their own.

“This time it’s a little more homespun,” Ms. Levine said. “It will be more easily replicated by other schools.”

First-grade teacher Megan McTier and her team were able to raise an additional $500 for her classroom by offering a parents’ night out, while another group organized a plant sale.

Last year, first-grade teacher Amanda Lafferty repainted her classroom with little help.

“I did this to my pre-k room, but by myself, so I’ve been through this once before,” she said. “But it’s so worth it in the end.”

One of Ms. Lafferty’s parent coordinators, Doogie Crooks, said the scraping and painting she did in the classroom Monday was for her two children as well as the other students at the school.

“These little things matter. If it’s an inviting space, it’ll make (the students) want to come,” she said. “And at an early age, you want them to want to come.”

Most of the renovation work in the 70-year-old building was cosmetic, including hundreds of gallons of brightly colored paint. After the work is finished this week, volunteers will help move things back into classrooms July 18, and school officials will host an open house on Aug. 2.

Eight-year-old Taylor Wagner, whose grandparents were volunteering Monday, said she purposely didn’t look in her third-grade classroom because she wants the end-of-the-week unveiling to “be a really big surprise.”

“I’m very excited. It’s amazing how much we can all bring it together,” she said. “It’s kind of like a little miracle.”