CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Jada Dehaney just wanted clean bathrooms. Instead, she gets a whole new school.
When Jada’s mother, Triscia, asked that her daughter be transferred to a cleaner school, she didn’t know her fourth-grader would be part of the inaugural school year at Cleveland’s new Park View Elementary School.
The public school is so new, campus construction won’t wrap up until mid-October so on Monday, the first day of school, students and teachers set up shop in the Dehaneys’ home church, North Cleveland Church of God.
“She quite excited to be in a familiar place where she can show everybody around,” Dehaney said.
Principal Deb Bailey said the church called the school district and offered its facility for use, rent-free.
“It was their generous offer to us,” she said. “We’re calling it ‘Park View’s Great Adventure.’ Our goal is to make sure these students don’t feel like they’re missing out on anything, but instead they’re getting more.”
On Monday, mom Teresa Mcalister said she was apprehensive at first but felt more comfortable after meeting with Bailey.
Thinking there might be some concern, Bailey said she spoke with several parents ahead of time.
“They fully understood that we didn’t have an alternative,” she said. “They know that our curriculum is going to remain the same.”
But a transitional facility isn’t without issues, Bailey said.
Space constraints mean several teachers and classes must coexist in one room simultaneously, fifth-grade teacher Courtney Buck said.
“We’re doing a little bit of team teaching,” she stated. “Each day it’s going to be a challenge.”
Fourth-grade teacher Holly Edwards said teachers were finally able to move materials into their classrooms on Sunday evening.
“The moving in part was pretty last minute,” she said. “‘Flexibility’ is the word this year.”
Because the church has no PA system, teachers carry walkie-talkies, Bailey said. Additional exit signs and emergency lights also had to be installed to bring the building up to K-5 school codes, she said.
“For the first six weeks we’re kind of back to basics,” she said. “I’m kind of excited; I think it’s a great way to see what teachers are really made of.”
She said she hopes to invite parents on tours of the new campus as soon as September but, in the meantime, everything’s been running smoothly at North Cleveland.
“The children all seem to be excited here,” she said. “I knew it had to be a large facility for me to bring in 320 of my closest friends.”
The church’s events coordinator, Carol Abear, said the decision to host the school was made last month. About 80 percent of the church’s classrooms will be occupied by Park View students and teachers, she added.
Christopher Quinn, the church’s children’s pastor, said it’s good that the facilities can be used more than twice a week.
“It certainly gives us a little more PR with people who don’t really attend our church regularly,” he said. “We automatically assume that the church is a good place for kids (but) we’re a church, they’re a school. We’re not going to cross any boundaries.”