When Sara Southard started teaching at Harrison Elementary in 2015, one of the first things people told her was that the school was getting a new building. Harrison was a tight-knit community with a staff that was supportive and collaborated well, she said, but the building was falling apart.
Looking at the plans for the new building was all very exciting, she said, because the school needed the space badly.
Just over five years later, the doors to the new school opened. It was such a nice facility, she said — it had a gym, and the library was huge.
But working there was “a bit of a nightmare,” she said.
The staff was so large that she didn’t really know anyone outside of her grade, which made it harder to work together, she said, and there were too many students — especially students with significant behavioral or emotional needs — for the staff to deal with it all.